


Trials of the Earth

by universalgrandcanyon



Category: Cory in the House, Sonic the Hedgehog - All Media Types
Genre: Anime, Manga
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-28
Updated: 2019-02-12
Packaged: 2019-10-18 09:05:58
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 25
Words: 40,461
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17577926
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/universalgrandcanyon/pseuds/universalgrandcanyon
Summary: After meeting a strange person, Cory is thrust into a new world with exciting adventures. This will be my longest fiction ever, and will feature many arcs and complex story lines. I might listen to your input if you review. This is originally from fanfiction.net.





	1. Life's a chore

It was a relatively normal day in Washington DC, the grass was green on the white house lawn, people were talking, birds were singing. Everything was calm and peaceful. Cory, a black male, was walking down the street toward the white house, without a care in the world. He was thinking about a girl he saw earlier, a mysterious girl with strange hair. She had helped him get out of a garbage can he had been thrown into by “the boys.” ‘Her blue tinted skin was the best thing about her,’ thought Cory as he walked along.

Not paying attention, Cory walked right into the road. For the most part, he avoided traffic, but then, out of nowhere, a bus swerved into his lane. He jumped away, narrowly missing getting hit by the bus and rolled on the pavement, doing a cool (to him) ninja move.

“Sorry,” Cory yelled at the bus driver, who was honking over and over again. Cory Baxter walked away, the driver still honking, and entered the white house garden. The garden was only filled with a few trees, as the president passed a law banning all plants other than trees.

“Ayo, look out, it’s da core man!” Chad, Cory’s “street” friend shouted as he entered the garden, “He finna bring out da dawgs.”

Cory tipped his hat at Chad, not knowing what he just said, and entered the house, walking over to his friend, Newt. Newt was a simple man, he acted cool but had never had a girlfriend and was actually afraid of talking to girls. He spent most of his days within the boundaries of his room (room is generous, it’s more of a coat closet) thinking about where it went wrong.

“Did you hear, man?” Newt said as Cory walked up.

“No, what do you mean?” Cory replied.

“They replaced your dad with some Italian guy, man!”

“What? What happened to my dad?”

“He’s now the head of the garbage crew, they couldn’t fire him because he had a contract, man”

Cory sighed and angrily walked away, leaving Newt in his dust, crying for mercy for his horrible life. Cory walked right into the kitchen, pushing through the many people dressed as chefs and walked up the manager, Luigi Mussolini.

“Ah… Itsa you, look everybody, it is the old chief's son, Cerry!” Luigi smiled upon him, holding his fingers in an ‘ok’ sign.

“I don’t want to hear it, pasta boy, get my dad back.”

“Ayy, but it is not so simple yes?, I tell you, many times I tell president, ‘this job is not for my taking,’ but he tell me to go back to work, so I work, I work hard and all I can say is I am sorry, no?”

“I didn’t understand a word you just said,” Cory said, starting to cry, “I-I’m going!”

Luigi turned to his intern, wife, partner, and former boss at the olive oil rig, “I tell you, these kids in America are all raiseda in terrebull homes, no self respect. We shoulda stayed in Italia!”

Cory ran out the door and into the night blindly running through the streets while sobbing. The streets were empty, a curfew had been made for the town of Washington DC, he was breaking the law. Cory sat on a bench, contemplating his terrible existence. He heard a loud noise from an alleyway nearby. Out of the darkness came his street friends, “the boys,” among them was Chad. They came up to Cory and taunted him, calling him a stupid crybaby.

“You a cry baby, loosa”

“You neva’ll hold a job”

“You be running out of school, Core!”

“S-stop you c-cyber bullies!” Cory cried.

They stopped as a blue blur slashed their pinky fingers, cutting all of them in two. Simultaneously, “the boys” cried out as their pinkies fell off, or half of them, for that matter. Quickly they ran away, only to be replaced by a familiar blue faced girl with weird hair.

“Wow, thanks,” Cory said as he stared at her.

“Hehe, no problem, chosen one,” the girl smiled at him, not in a romantic way because no one likes Cory in that way, but in a nice way.

“W-what do you mean by that??” 

“You have been chosen to liberate this world, Cory.”

“By who?” Cory scratched his head.

“The stars have spoken, they say: Upon the moon the fire burns, but fear not don’t empty urns, the hero Cory reigns in DC, go to him, he’ll set man free.”

“Wow, that’s nice poetry, you’re really good at that”

“Hehe, don’t flirt with me you creep.”

“Sorry,” Cory blushed.

“I am here to help you with your quest, but- oh nevermind…”

“Alright, I’ll meet you here tomorrow to go over things, bye- uh, what’s your name?”  
“Oh yes, that would be Xerath”

“Ok, bye Xerath!” Cory picked up the bits of pinky left over on the ground and ran off back to the white house, occasionally skipping.

Xerath opened a hologram and began speaking in hushed tones with her commander, Xerath.

“Xerath, report!” Xerath yelled at Xerath.

“I have made contact with the boy, he knows that he is the chosen one.”

“Good, does he know the sacrifice he must make?”

“No, I- I hesitated to tell him that…”

“He must know, don’t put it off, Xerath”

“Yes sir, Xerath, I’m sorry,” Xerath said, saluting.

“At ease, report next week, I have Russian soap operas to catch up with.”

“Yes sir,” she closed her hologram, looking toward the moon, her green hair flowing through the wind, “the sacrifice… I’m sorry Cory, but I can’t tell you…”


	2. Light and Darkness

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cory discovers a strange entity.

Darkness set upon the city of Washington DC as Cory slowly made his way back home. Soon, only the light from the street lamps lit his way, making navigation difficult. The moon shone a spotlight through the darkness on the White House, making the path for young Cory to move on. He stuffed the pinkies in his pocket and pulled up his hood, disguising himself. The darkness around him threatened him with the unknown, making it impossible to know what is out there in the place he can’t see.

Suddenly, Cory heard a noise, a loud noise. This noise wasn’t like another noise he heard, in fact, this noise was completely different from any noise he had ever heard. Cory fell to his knees in fear, and began coughing violently, his mind being invaded by an unknown source. The noise grew louder, and Cory quickly turned to the White house, only to find himself inside an abandoned building, still on the ground in the same position as before. He could sense something behind him. A benevolent entity he had heard of before. 

Still coughing, Cory reached up to his mouth, only to find his nose was bleeding. Cory closed his eyes and slowly turned around. Then, he opened them.

A rush of fear fell over him, giving him an intense headache. Cory fell down to the ground of the abandoned building, coughing and trying to stop his nosebleed. ‘Give me the fingers, child,’ a voice in his head said. Cory slowly reached for his back pocket and removed the fingers, dropping them on the floor in front of the man. The man stared down at him, making his headache worse. 

Cory regained some courage, “W-who are…. Y-you?” he shouted as his cough became slightly better. At that, the entity left, leaving but a single finger behind. Cory began to recover and grabbed the finger, stashing it in his pocket, and slowly getting up. His head hurt more than anything he had ever experienced. Cory got up from the ground and looked around. He was in a small room, half overgrown with weeds and other plants. The roof had half collapsed, and beams were lying all over the place. ‘I have to get out of here,’ Cory thought, exiting the room.

As he walked through the halls of the abandoned building, he began hearing footsteps below. It was hard to see, as it was night and he didn’t have a flashlight. He followed the hallways until he found stairs, he went down to the first floor, and the footstep sounds became louder. Cory cautiously walked through the rooms of the first floor, seeing a flashlight up ahead. As he came closer, Cory could make out the distinct shape of the Italian chef who had taken his father’s job. Cory decided to trail him, and see what he could discover about the man. 

‘This is just like that one sonic level where you have to use stealth,’ Cory thought, referring to his fangame: “Metal Sonic Gear.” Cory stayed back 11 feet from Luigi, struggling to keep quiet, as he was fat. Luigi made his way through the building, shining his light into every room. Then, he stopped and turned around. Cory quickly hid in a room in the side, tripping and falling through the floor into the basement. 

Luigi ran to the room and shone his light down into the hole Cory had created, but couldn’t see anything below. Cory quickly ran through the pitch black basement, trying to find a way out. Luigi jumped down into the hole and followed Cory’s footsteps through the concrete tunnels. Cory began to sprint as he saw his flashlight behind him. He found a room and shut the door behind him, trying to hide. Luigi walked right past the door, searching up ahead. 

The room Cory had entered was fully lighted, and as he looked around he began to realise he had discovered one of the greatest things in human history. Cory looked around at the many shelves and drawers and began sifting through the books, comics, and games held in this secret vault. The entire room was littered with Sonic merchandise. Everything was sonic the hedgehog. Cory began to scream with joy as he grabbed the comics.

Luigi burst through the door, holding out a spatula toward Cory, “Stopa right there you black suited demon!” Luigi’s face became more relaxed as he saw it was only Cory. “Craig, I tell you, I was half scared you were something else, come on, youa need to get home now.”

“W-what is this place?”

“This is my Sonic hideout. Iya come here every night to make sure itsa alright. You see, there’s a man outa there after my comics.”

“I ran into a man earlier that took my fingers, he also gave me a headache and a nosebleed,” Cory mumbled.

“Oha no, hea took your fingers?? He wants to steala my comics!”

“He didn’t look like the type who wants to steal comics,” Cory’s headache began to return as the lights went out. Luigi began to scream. The door opened and he shone his flashlight at the doorway, revealing the man from before in full details. He wasn’t quite human. ‘I am not here for silly comics, I am here for blood.’

Luigi pulled out his spatula, “h-here sir, youa can have the boy!” He pushed Cory forward as they both fell to the ground in mental pain. The entity was strong, maybe unbeatable. Cory reached into his pocket and pulled out his last finger, chucking it at the monster. The ringing noise began to get louder, and Luigi began screaming again. Then it stopped and everything was fine. 

“You’re one brave boy, youa want to leave this place, no?” the chef got up, rubbing his head. They began walking out of the abandoned building and back to Washington DC. As they went, Luigi gave Cory one of his comics, which brought another scream from Cory. 

“What was that thing?” the boy asked as he walked through the streets, the sun beginning to rise.

“Thata was just one of those so called Frenchies,” replied the chef.

“THAT was a French person? Wow.”

“Yes, didn’t youa see the suit, thata is the mark of a Frenchie.”

They walked to the white house and through the garden, retelling the tale of the Frenchman and how they fought it. Cory began telling everyone the loch ness monster was there as well. The president sent a firing squad to burn down the old building, stopping the creature once and for all. Cory warned him that the monster was outside of the building as well, but the president just wanted to burn something.

“You see, Cory. Soon you’ll understand. This is the final stretch. The last dojo. There's a man out there being resurrected who wished to destroy the world. I can’t give any details, but you seem to be the chosen one or something. I want to show you something.” The president got up from his chair and spun the globe, pointing to Japan.

His finger slowly pushed down on the country, pressing it into the globe. It was a button! The oval office windows turned black and the American flags turned to Japanese ones. The entire room lit up from lanterns, showing the paintings had changed to traditional Japanese ones. One of the walls opened up, revealing a secret room. As they entered the room, a cold wind blew through Cory’s hair. Cory covered his eyes from the breeze, and opened them to find himself in a long room with many pillars and columns. On the walls were paintings of demons. 

“Welcome Cory, to your destiny.” Cory began walking towards the beacon of light at the end of the tunnel, walking across the floor in awe. Japanese symbols appears on the columns, lighting up with a firey blue glow. As the pedestal came closer, the beacon of light began to fade and Cory could make out what was at the end. He walked past the pedestal, saving it for later, and to a mural on the wall.

The mural depicted millions of demons, led by one man who appeared to have a mustache drawn on by crayon. The demons were only stopped by one man- a man he recognized as himself. Cory, in the mural, was holding a sword of pure light, not just any sword though, a katana. On his head was a bandana, a symbol of his power.

Cory turned around, looking at the pedestal. In it was the Katana of light. A sword Cory only knew to be legend. The sword shone with light, brightening the entire room, shining it’s light across the pedestal, making the pillars brighter with its light, lighting the entire stage, making Cory close his eyes from the bright light. Cory grabbed the hilt of the sword and lifted it, dropping it in the process. He wasn’t strong enough.

“It’s ok, Cory, we never expected you to lift it right away. You must train first,” the president said, walking toward Cory.

“Can I get answers first?” 

“Yes, here is a monologue recording of me explaining everything,” the president pulled out a tape record and pressed the play button.

“The world is different now. Japan has fallen, and the United States has taken over for them in terms of culture. Through the power of the internet, we make people learn Japanese through rosetta stone and celebrate Japanese culture, effectively making Japan live on after death. In an expedition to the abandoned country of Japan, we discovered a large room housing a katana of pure light and murals depicting a hero defeating waves of monsters. One of the murals seems to depict (Static). Another mural has needed (Static) because it contained (Static). I know now what I must do. I must (Static). As soon as I find the hero, I must take him and teach him to fight with that light katana. I believe I know who he is, though, so I have given his father a job at my house, even if he’s a bad chef. Soon I will replace him with a better one, though his son must stay. His son is the hero.” The president pressed the pause button.

“You are the chosen one, Cory. Also I accidentally ripped the tape, so it kind of removed some stuff, sorry.” The president put away his recorded and pointed to Cory, “welcome to your new life, as a samurai, the last samurai, Cory Baxter.”

Gongs rung through the room, filling it with a mysterious atmosphere as Cory stared in wonder at the president. The pillars began to collapse as Cory grabbed the sword.

“Hurry, we must escape from this before we both die,” the president shouted, dodging falling stones. They ran for the exit, jumping over fallen pillars and ducking under debris. All of a sudden a boulder fell from the ceiling and began chasing them. They sprinted toward the exit, the president carrying the sword as it was too heavy for young Cory. The exit began to close, slowly moving down.

“Quickly, slide under the door Cory!” 

Cory went into a sliding position, but was too fat to move. The president grabbed him and pulled him under the door. Sealing it forever. The oval office turned back to normal, the flags became American again. 

“Some trip, eh Cory?” He smiled at Cory, going back to his chair. Cory nodded and began to leave, dragging his katana behind him. The president took a crayon out of his pocket and put it back into his drawer, this was the beginning of Cory’s quest to defeat the ultimate evil. 

Over in Germany, cultists were resurrecting a human lost to time. WIth new technology they were able to make him a new body, he looked almost real. With one final switch of a lever, the man sprang to life, reanimated finally by the cultists. They had brought back the dead.


	3. Cory tries to get Girls

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cory goes to the mall with Newt to try to get a girlfriend.

The sun shone brightly through the small hole in Cory’s broom closet room. The beams of light landed on his eyelids, forcing him awake. Cory mumbled as he sat up in bed. His room was small, about 5 feet by 5 feet. He had a small mattress on the floor with a single blue blanket and a small pillow he found on the street. Next to his bed sat a shelving unit, on it were his comic he had gotten from Luigi, a couple of rations of bread, and his newly acquired katana of light. To get it onto that shelf, Cory needed to get Newt, who was surprisingly not weak, to lift it. 

That proved a bad idea, though, as the sword burned a hole in both of Newt’s hands, leaving him with one inch in diameter holes in the center of his palms. After a bit of surgery, Newt added magnifying glasses into the holes, making his life a little bit better. He often uses his hands, now, to read and look closely at contracts. 

Today was the day Cory was supposed to start his training, but he had decided not to start on this day. Today he was going to creep on girls and see if they wanted to be with him, but first he needed motivation to get up.

A familiar face appeared in his doorway at that time: Newt! He walked into the closet, doing his normal strut walk, and hit his head on the ceiling. He held up his hands to his eyes, looking at Cory.

“Hey, man,” he simply said

“Hey Newt, I need to get up so I can creep on some girls, you in?”

“Oh yeah, man! I love doing that. Who knows? Maybe we’ll be lucky today.”

“Of course we will, you’ve got those cool hand implants!”

Cory slowly got out of bed and walked out of his room, out into the hallway of the white house. He followed Newt to the kitchen, where they sat down for their daily meal. Today they were serving bread crust, a classic white house breakfast. There was a hierarchy system in the white house- people who were working had the good food, and everyone else got bread crust. Newt devoured his crust, savoring the taste, Cory merely stared at it, wishing for something more.

As they finished their meal, Cory got a grand old idea for what they could do: go to the mall and look in the food court. All the best girls went to the food court, always with their boyfriends, but still. If one of them even glanced at Cory or Newt, they knew that one day they would be married. Last week, Cory actually caught the eye of a real cute girl, who in turn pepper sprayed Cory. It was love at first sight.

They left the white house and began thinking about ways to get there. There were three options: bikes, the bus, or motorized scooters. Obviously they chose motorized scooters as they could ride those inside the mall (not legally, but the mall cops were too slow for them). They grabbed their scooters out of the bushes and began to ride to the mall. On the way, Cory almost got hit by a bus, but he survived due to ninja scooter skills. The boys wrote through the sliding glass doors and went up the elevator to the food court.

They chose a their perfect spot, out of all walkways, yet still visible from everywhere in the food court. It was also shaded, so they weren't in a spotlight. The food court was a large circular room with many restaurants around the edges. Today, many girls were walking around and hanging out in the court. 

“See anyone you like, man?” Newt asked Cory as he looked around through his hands.

“Not yet… wait, yes I do!” Cory said as he pointed toward a girl across the food court, she was tall with very dark skin, Cory’s ideal woman.

“Why don’t you go talk to her, man?”

“Uh… maybe I will…” Cory sighed and stared at her.

“You’ll never get anyone with that attitude, come on, what are you? A shrimp, man?”

“NO I am not a shrimp! I’ll do it,” the fat, short protagonist walked over to the girl, looking up to her.

“Uh, hey I n-noticed you from over there and uh you’re cool,” Cory stated, mumbling.

“And you are?”

“Oh, I’m Cory, Cory in the house.” 

“In the house?”

“Oh no, s-sorry. Cory Baxter…”

“Oh ok, well Cory Baxter, come back when you’re 6’2”, you’re way too short for any girl.”

“W-what? B-but that one guy told me to just be myself…”

“Haha! You believed someone who said that? Is it that loser over there with the holes in his hands?” They both looked at Newt, who gave a thumbs up to Cory.

“N-no!” Cory ran away from the girl, back to Newt.

“So did you get her, man?”

“No, she said I’m too short…”

“Nah man, you just weren’t being yourself. It’s what they want, man”

“Is that what you do?”

“Yeah man”

“That’s why it isn’t working. How do I get taller?”

“I saw this ad on a website for pills that make you taller, man.”

“Can you see where they’re located?”

“Yeah, man, just give me a second.” Newt pulled a large laptop out of his backpack and began searching, “ah here it is, growth pills. It says doctors hate them, looks like they really work. They are sold behind the mall in a shopping cart in the creek, man.”

“Come on, let’s go then.” Cory grabbed his scooter and rode off down the stairs, closely followed by Newt. Suddenly, sirens sounded all around them, Mall cops on segways began to follow the crew, catching up to them.

“We need to hurry, Cory man”

“I know, let's take this into overdrive!” He flipped a switch on the controls and began speeding off, only to be stopped by mall cops covering the door.

“They’ve got us surrounded, man,” Newt screamed as they began closing in, their mouths foaming with delight as they thought of their next victims going to mall jail for 20 minutes. A distant rumbling shook the ground as something blue approached. It was moving at an ultra high speed, so fast that not even a dog could run as fast as it. The blue thing ran around and took out the mall cops one by one, knocking them off their segways and ruining their uniforms.

“Don’t call anybody,” It said as it stopped attacking, landing in front of the boys. It was a blue hedgehog that looked similar to sonic, but it was wearing a medallion. He stepped towards Newt and Cory, smirking awkwardly, “Hey, I’m Chris.”

He touched his medallion and began to transform into a human. He was short, a little bit overweight, and was wearing a striped red shirt. He pulled out a katana, waved it around, and then put it back in his belt, cutting another hole in his pants. 

“I’m here to teach you the art of japanese swordfighting.” He stared at Cory, still wearing his stupid smile.

“Ah, you’re my sensei? Well I’m not ready for this yet, we’re going to get growth pills right now so we can get taller and get girlfriends.” Cory explained.

“Ok, can I come? I really want a boyfriend- free girl.”

“How old are you?”

“35.”

“Ok, I don’t see a problem, then.” 

They walked out the door and towards the creek, looking around for a shopping cart. Dawn was fast approaching, their shadows moved along the pavement like long, fluid brushstrokes. The autumn leaves blew through the wind as Cory looked toward the east, his long hair blowing along with them. Finally, they reached the shopping cart where they found a man who only spoke portuguese. He told them in broken english that the pills will grow them. 

“You grow when drink them.” He said, “they grown you”

“We’ll take them, then,” Cory shouted, excited.

“You want? I seel for 600 dolls.”

The group huddled up, seeing if it was worth that much.

“I really really want those pills,” Cory whined.

“Yeah, we all do, man.” Newt took out his wallet and emptied it, 1000 dollars.

“I have a couple of dollars from selling useless junk online,” Chris said, taking out 100 dollars. 

Cory pulled out his wallet, only to find a single dollar.

20 minutes later they were sitting on the bank of the creek with three pills, the portuguese man moaning in pain behind them.

“Are you ready to get a girlfriend, boys?” Cory asked, excited.

They all took the pills and swallowed them. They began to pace around, waiting for results.

“Maybe it isn’t instant, man,” Newt reassured them.

They waited for 30 minutes with no results, Cory began to worry that they’d been cheated, even if they HAD cheated the man who sold the pills. He walked toward the river, looking down at the bright green water. It looked good. He reached his hands down and cupped the water, but it instantly turned to dust. ‘It must be really humid out,’ Cory thought as he wiped his mouth with his sleeve, only to find that his sleeve was made out of steel wool, scraping his face up.

Cory walked away from the creek to a nearby oasis, starving for water in the desert heat. He jumped into the water, feeling the natural chemicals of the oasis fill his bones. To his right was the president, who was shouting at him words that he didn’t understand. Cory smiled and waved at him, closing his eyes and enjoying the water. He reached down and grabbed a handful of water, bringing it to his mouth and drinking it. It had chunks of something in it, but other than that it was great.

Two men stepped toward him. They both had boar heads and large muskets. They began yelling at Cory and shouting at him. Angrily speaking to him and talking to him in large voices. Suddenly, everything went black and only a loud ring could be heard by Cory Baxter.

He was in a small room with a pool table in the center, around the room were many object, and even some people. Cory struggled to walk, and began to drift toward one of the people. He tried to change his route but it was automatic, then he realised this was a dream. As soon as he realised this, everything became clear. The room lost it’s fuzzy hugh and he could move freely again. One object seemed to stick out more than the rest, a golden statue of some strange being with large arms, but short legs. Cory reached out and grabbed it, only for everything to disappear and the loud ringing noise to come back. ‘I’ve got to wake up, I have to wake up’ Cory thought as he tried to escape. Finally he woke up, finding himself in a prison cell with Newt and Chris, who were lying on the ground unconscious. 

Later that day, the president bailed them out and showed them the footage of Cory walking to the creek and grabbing sand, then dropping it hastily,grabbing a piece of metal and scraping it across his face. Cory then walked over to a highly polluted part of the creek and began drinking the water, tiny maggots wiggling between his fingers as he drank. Cory had to get his stomach pumped later that day, and stitches were placed in his face, giving him a cool scar.

“Why did you steal pills from a shifty looking figure, boys?” the president asked as they walked home from the hospital. 

“We wanted to grow taller so we could get girls.” Cory replied, mumbling through the stitches.

The president burst out laughing at the thought of them ever getting girls, “haha, remember boys, only do drugs when there's no cops around.”

They laughed as they walked away, the president carrying the remaining pills of the portuguese man, who was not labeled a domestic terrorist and sent over to a torture camp. As he was hauled away, he shouted, “I mean they grow mind, no height. Silly Americans!”


	4. The Events Surrounding his Training

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cory trains with Chris to perfect his katana skills.

The sun started to rise on the horizon as Cory and Chris walked through a field of tall grass. Chris held a walking stick as he led Cory along to their destination: the training grounds. The sky turned tangerine colored as the mountains were silhouetted over the sun. The autumn trees dropping their multicolored leaves, only for them to be picked up by the wind and brought away to infinity.

The two figures, both hunched over with backpacks, walked over to a small clearing, this was the training ground. Hand made in the shape of sonic’s head, the clearing featured a few logs and some sticks, perfect for katana training.

“So, you wish to learn the arcane art of katana wielding?” Chris shouted over the wind, his greasy hair blowing to the left. Cory took out a bandana, put it on, and let his long hair down. Ever since he met the blue skinned girl, he hadn’t cut his hair. Cory’s hair grew about an inch a day, so it was easy for him to have long hair fast. 

“Yes, sensei.” Cory bowed, grabbing a stick. Chris grabbed another one of the sticks and stood in a ready position.

“Now, you must feel the katana in your hand, you must become your katana…”

Cory began running his hands along the stick, feeling it carefully. His delicate hands running over every feature, every crack, every imperfection. Cory began to understand. The katana was the only thing that stood between him and death, it was his guardian angel. He must become the katana in order to fight as one with the katana, his protection.

Cory opened his eyes and stared Chris directly in the eyes, “I’m ready.”

Chris swung his stick low, bringing it upwards toward Cory’s stomach. In one swift move, Cory jumped out of the way and swung his stick toward the fat man’s shoulder, only to be met with a quick block by Chris, who expertly moved his stick out of the swing into a counter, pushing Cory back with the block. Cory rolled and swung at Chris’s legs, barely missing due to a jump maneuver. Chris swung his stick down upon Cory, who was still on the ground, and hit him on the shoulder.

“That’s it, you’re dead now.” Chris shouldered his stick, “try again.”

Cory stood up and grabbed his stick and standing in a ready position. The two males stood ready, waiting for the other to deliver the first move. Chris suddenly jumped to the side (it was more of a clumsy dive, he’s fat) and swung his stick toward Cory’s side. Cory dodged and jumped back 10 feet, holding his stick near his face and staring at the other man. Cory ran toward Chris, his stick ready, and swung at him, but Chris blocked. They rapidly began to duel, swinging their sticks, only to be met with a block from the other. Cory began to see it: he knew now that they were equals. 

Chris stared in amazement as he jumped back from the fury of swings, “not bad, but you are not nearly trained. Get ready.”

Chris jumped at Cory, stick held above his head, and swung down on him. Cory blocked and moved to the left, swinging his stick around and hitting Chris’s back. Chris smiled, “now you’re ready, I have one more test though.”

Chris took Cory over a small hill, where there were people standing around a plane. “Infiltrate the plane, and survive.”

Cory ran toward the plane, determined to become a katana wielder. He hid behind one of the wheels, listening into the conversation.

“...would I want them?” said the first man, who held his hands on his belt in the shape of hooks.

“They were trying to grab your prize, they work for the mercenary, the masked man…” 

“Bane?” the other man nodded and they began to load in the hostages. Cory stealthily ran into the plane, hiding in the back, behind a seat. The first man entered the plane and they began to fly. The mountains outside zipped past them as they reached high speeds. 

“The flight plan I just filed with the agency lists me, my men, doctor Pavel here but only one of you.” the man moved to the plane door, a crazed look in his eyes, and shouted “first one to talk gets to stay in my aircraft. Cory looked away, not listening to the rest of the conversation, and tried to find a parachute. Looking outside, he noticed another plane flying nearby, a bigger plane. A few men jumped out the plane and drifted toward their plane.

The first man who talked began yelling at a hostage, saying he was in charge. The plane began to rumble as a man with a mask stood up and began punching people. Cory ran to the front, confronting the man.

“Ah, who do we have here?” Bane said, staring into Cory's soul. Cory glanced over at the first man, a CIA agent, who told him mentally to end this terrorist. Cory jumped up and took Bane’s mask off, throwing it out the window. Bane jumped after it, making the rest of the movie non canon. The enemy agents who worked for Bane shook hands with the CIA agents, getting over their small differences and the plane was once again peaceful. 

But the plane was heading to San francisco, a place Cory wasn’t allowed. Cory needed to get off the plane quick! He ran to the pilot's seat and moved the lever so the plane would crash. Cory then ran back to get a parachute, noticing that there weren't any! He ran to the back of the plane and opened the cargo hold, making all of the cargo fall out. He jumped onto one of the cargo crates and rode it out of the plane, holding on for dear life as the plane crashed into the mountain.

The crates landed in a field, where Chris waited patiently for Cory’s successful mission. Cory landed, only to find the crate he was in held Sonic action figures. Both Chris and Cory decided to take them all. CIA stumbled out of one of the crates, smiling awkwardly as he began fell on the ground, unconscious. 

The two men dragged CIA along, bringing him to the helicopter they had found. Cory, still holding Bane’s mask, was labeled a national hero for bringing down the masked terrorist, though only by CIA, who didn’t have any authority over anything. 

Back at the white house, Cory proudly placed the mask next to his Sonic comic. He knew now that he was the chosen one, he was the only one who could defeat whatever villain was out there. Cory glanced at his katana, reaching out to grab it, he still couldn’t lift it. He was too weak. Cory decided to go down to the weight room to train, but the president stopped him and told him he could never get any stronger due to his terrible genetics.

The president took Cory down to the basement, the laboratory. Scientists gave Cory a glove that made him artificially stronger. Cory ran back to his room and grabbed his katana, wielding it for the first time. What would come next? Only satan knows.


	5. The Iowa Episode

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cory is kidnapped and taken to Iowa.

Cory woke up with a start, feeling as if this was going to be a very bad day. He got out of bed and sheathed his katana, already wearing his clothing. He walked out of the closet and ran right into the president, who, as usual, was drinking absinthe.

“Cory, what did I say about looking where you are going?!”

“Nothing, you’ve never said anything about that to me…” Cory covered his face in shame.

“Well, you should know by now, you’re like 12.” With that, the president stalked off to some unknown place, drinking the green liquid lustfully.

Cory decided that today was going to be a normal day, nothing weird was going to happen. He ate his bread rations and walked outside, taking a deep breath and enjoying the fall breeze. His katana glowed in the autumn light, reflecting the multicolored leaves of the white house garden. Cory then began walking down the white house sidewalk, unknowingly walking right into a trap.

A bus slowly approached, stopping right in front of Cory. The door opened and the bus driver jumped out.

“Hey, you’re that guy who almost hit me!” Cory shouted, recoiling in horror.

“That’s right, and I think it’s about time you learned a lesson, eh?” the driver exploded, exposing his Canadian accent.

He grabbed Cory and threw him on the bus, driving away at an insanely fast speed. 20 hours later, Cory was violently thrown out of the bus in a small field next to a small town in the middle of Iowa. The bus driver laughed and drove away, leaving Cory alone in a state full of corn.

He walked to the town, realising he may need to spend the rest of his life here. Soon enough, he found someone who would take him in: an old lady who lived with her 30 year old son, or more accurately a 30 year old man living with his grandmother. The house was small, but Cory was used to small spaces and didn’t mind.

“As long as you don’t mess with my computer or interrupt my chatrooms, you can stay, but I won’t like it,” Tim, the 30 year old son, said in a high pitched voice, adjusting his glasses. He then walked over to his computer and began chatting once again.

“You’re gonna have to attend school if you wanna live here,” the grandma said, “unless you wanna be one of those hooligans who ride quads in the dunes.”

Not knowing what she was talking about, Cory walked to his new room, which was bigger than the one he had at the white house. All it contained was a bed, a bookshelf, and a small notebook, which had a pencil in it. Noticing it was a drawing book, Cory took it and began drawing Japanese symbols and warriors in the blank pages, making himself a new hobby in the process.

Eventually, Cory got hungry and moved out of his room to the kitchen, where he grabbed a quesadilla. He could hear Tim quietly talking to himself while he typed at his computer, talking to people he would never meet through a chat room. 

“What exactly are you doing?’ Cory asked, having never seen a computer before.

“If you must know, Cory, I’m talking to girls through the internet, it’s getting pretty serious.” 

“Oh, lucky. I can’t get girls because I’m too short…”

Letting out a nasally snicker, Tim turned and adjusted his glasses, “That’s a myth, if you want girls you just gotta be yourself.” He then turned back to his computer, leaving Cory to think.

Cory now knew three qualities to getting girls, be confident, be tall, and be yourself. He was learning, slowly but surely. He walked out to the porch with his new outfit: sweat pants with a siberian tiger printed tee shirt tucked into them. Cory sat on the porch and waited for the bus, looking over the corn field across the road. Eventually the bus came, Cory walked slowly up the stairs and past the third graders, going to the back of the bus where Greg, a 4th grader, sat.

“What are you going to do today, Cory?” Greg asked, looking severely depressed.

“Gosh, I just got up so shut up, kid.” Cory turned away and began throwing stuff out the bus window to see if it would make the bus go faster due to there being less weight.

Cory arrived at school and walked up the stairs, entering the building. He found his locker and put all his stuff into it, katana included. Apparently weapons weren't allowed in the classrooms because they were “dangerous.” Out of nowhere, Jim, the school jock, walked up to Cory, pushing him into the lockers.

“Heh, nothing personal, kid,” he said, laughing.

Cory ran from Jim, arms behind his back, and eventually made it to his classroom. He sat down on his desk and took out his notebook, drawing some more samurais. Eventually, the teacher began to call names for presentations on the articles they had to do reports on. Cory stood up as his name was called and walked up to the chalkboard, standing awkwardly in front of the class.

“Over the weekend, French scientists shot a missile at the wilderness of Canada t-to try to kill bigfoot, who lives there. After searching the forest ruins, many people seem to think that bigfoot still lives and didn’t die,” Cory took a deep breath, closing his eyes, “some people think witches came from Toronto to save bigfoot and stop others from eating him, and saved him in the process.”

Cory ran back to his seat with his arms behind his back, frowning. Nobody clapped, and no one said anything. Cory began shading his picture of a katana as the bell rang, causing Cory to shout out in frustration.

Cory now went to gym class, where he sat on the tire swing on the elementary playground, staring at girls hoping they’d talk to him. None of them did. Jim walked over and threw a stick at Cory, causing Cory to shout “gosh” and run away. 

He approached the office and stood there, waiting for the secretaries to talk to him. One of them turned to him, and gave him a questioning look. They stared at each other for about 30 seconds, the secretary’s eyes slowly narrowing and Cory’s face unchanging.

“How can I help you?” the secretary asked, breaking the silence.

“I need to use your phone, it’s an emergency.”

Reluctantly, she gave up the phone and handed it to Cory. But he couldn’t remember any of the numbers of anyone. He was stuck at school for now…

Walking to lunch, Cory ran into the principal, who handed him a note that said the grandma he was living with went off to Las Vegas to get away from depressing Iowa. Everything was looking bad for Cory now. He was stuck alone in a school full of bullies and people who hated him, and now some old guy was coming over to watch him and Tim. 

Cory got to lunch and sat alone, eating his chicken tenders in peace. A short kid walked up and sat across from him, eating a salad. His face was unreadable, and he showed no emotion. They sat in silence and ate, grabbing their food, putting it into their mouths, chewing it with their teeth, and swallowing it, making the leftovers of the food go into their digestive system.

Cory got on the bus home, avoiding everyone. He arrived home to find Tim at his computer, talking to “girls.”

“Get out of my light, Cory!’ Tim shouted as Cory walked in sulking.

Cory sat on the porch outside, staring at a cow in the field next to the house. A loud noise began to form as a semi truck drove up, parking in front of the house. A guy with a long, handlebar mustache and long hair came out of the truck, adjusting his shades. This would be the guy watching the boys. He grabbed a piece of thinly sliced ham from the glove compartment and walked up to the house, chewing with his mouth open.

“Cory, get in the house and put this in the cassette player,” the man said, handing Cory a DVD.

He ran inside and put the DVD into the cassette player, surprised to find out it worked. He sat down next to Tim on the couch, and all three of them began watching the home film. It was a half hour piece of footage that showcased Mack, the new guy, throwing frisbees at a tree.

“So, what do you think of my home movie?”

“I like it, we should sell stuff like this to commoners,” Tim replied.

“Ah commoners, is that some new type of pig?”

“This is the worst movie i've ever seen,” Cory exploded.

“Hey, don’t talk about my movie like that, kid. I’ve dealt with people younger than you and it ain’t pretty!” 

Cory ran off, not feeling welcome, and walked into town. Everyone was talking about the school dance and how they were going to it, but Cory couldn’t find a date. And now that the grandma was gone, he couldn’t even take her to the dance. He walked into his favorite story in town: the clothing store. Inside, he could find almost anything related to clothing such as fanny packs and ammo bags.

Cory went over to the ‘new’ section, where they showcased second hand goods that were just donated. A nice blood-red fedora had come in, it was made out of sheepskin and only cost 5 dollars. Cory wanted to buy it to impress the ladies, but he realised he had already bought a fanny pack with his allowance, and didn’t have any money left. This led to him getting the idea to get a job.

He walked over to the park and began searching for jobs. The job market in Iowa was the greatest in the world, but there was only farming jobs. He decided to go for a more industrial job and went into the pig whipping business. For 8 hours straight, Cory whipped pigs back into their cage because the farm owner couldn’t afford a gate and didn’t think Cory was strong enough to handle pigs bare handed. And he was right.

Cory came home with 25 cents, a fraction of the cost of the fedora. Tim was once again talking to Jay, his girlfriend over the internet.

“We just really connect, y’know? I can just feel here here…” As he said that, he closed his eyes and breathed out slowly, hugging the air next to him intimately.  
Cory retreated to his room, trying to figure out a plan to get money so he could get that fedora so he could impress the ladies so he could get a date for the dance. It was then that he recalled Tim’s suggestion to sell Mack’s DVD to commoners. Looking outside, Cory made sure Mack was still asleep in the flowerbed, he was. Cory then snuck past Tim, who was now kissing the air next to him, and grabbed the DVD from the cassette player.

Cory ran downtown and sold the DVD, which he told the man at the pawn shop was empty, and got his 5 bucks. He walked over to the clothing store and bought the blood-red fedora, proudly releasing his plan had worked, he could now get a date for the dance.

The next day at school, he wore the hat all day. It attracted a lot of attention to him, and he knew that his plan had worked. Growing in courage, he decided to ask out a girl he had seen before, Maylene. He walked up to her and began to talk.

“Maylene, want to go to the dance with me?” 

She got a disgusted look on her face and walked away. Cory knew she had only gotten nervous and didn’t blame her. He would meet her at the dance.

Getting back to his house, Cory found Mack was tearing apart the house to find his DVD. As he caught sight of Cory, he knew that Cory had stolen his precious home film. Mack grabbed Cory and slammed him onto the table, telling him not to move. Tim continued to type loudly and talk to himself as he ignored, or maybe didn’t hear, the commotion. 

Mack came back with a piece of cloth and a jug of water. He put the cloth onto Cory’s head and started pouring water onto it. 

“What did you do to my DVD?” Mack yelled, holding the cloth down tightly.

Cory began to feel a drowning sensation and screamed, telling Mack to stop.

“Tell me what you did to my film!” 

“I-I sol… sold it….. T-t-to the pawn… shop….” Cory began coughing and wheezing.

“You did what?”

“I sold it for five bucks so I could buy this hat!”

Mack pushed Cory outside and they began to fight, lightly slapping each other every few seconds. Eventually Mack pulled out a lighter and grabbed Cory’s fedora, lighting it on fire. Cory watched his dreams of getting a girl burn away with the hat.

Instead of getting angry, Cory felt emptiness as he walked back to his bedroom, crying softly. 

As he arrived to the dance the next day, Cory saw that everyone else had a date. He looked around for Maylene, trying to see if she still wanted to be with him. Suddenly the doors opened and in came Maylene with Jim, the jock. Cory left the dance that night very sad.

Tim had started talking to Jay over the phone, but she didn’t speak english so they couldn’t even talk.

“Non mi piace tu,” she said, desperately trying to get her point out.

“I don’t know anything about nuns, sorry,” Tim was much happier now.

The time had come for final exams, and Mack had finally left. Things were looking better. Naturally Cory failed all his exams, having never done a single assignment or done anything in school other than draw. Maylene had become school president and made taking weapons on school property against the school rules. Life was getting horrible, Cory couldn’t take it anymore.

While eating his quesadilla, he realised Tim was nowhere to be found. Cory looked around the house and couldn’t find him anywhere. He walked outside, only to find himself in the middle of the SWAT team taking Tim and his grandmother into custody, and with them was the president.

“Cory! I’m glad we finally found you and saved you from those kidnappers.”

“Kidnappers..?”

“Yeah, they kidnapped you, brought you to Iowa, and made you go to school.”

Cory felt he deserved a break from all of this, so he decided not to tell the president about the bus driver and how these were just normal people. The team took Cory and the president back to DC, where Cory fell into his tiny bed and laid awake all night, unable to sleep on such a cheap mattress after months of sleeping in a bed. Life was better in Iowa, no matter how many corn fields there were.


	6. Cory's Inferno Part I

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cory and Kanye East find themselves in hell.

In the city of Berlin, people were celebrating harvest. Many Germans came to the town square to sell their products, happily conversing with others. The entire city was filled with joy, and no problems were thought about on this day. But under the city, it was another story.

Cultists walked through an abandoned bunker under Berlin, eagerly awaiting to meet their once again revived master. One cultist got too excited, and was told to leave so he wouldn’t offend the emperor. Eventually, the time came for them to enter the room, trying to hide their excitement for the master. In a single file, they entered the room, which was furnished greatly with bookcases and tables. At one table, a man sat as he stroked his mustache. 

He wore a military uniform and had on his head a cap, much like many commanders wear in the military. He stood, revealing his uncanny face, almost perfect as he was no longer fully human. That man was Adolf Hitler, reborn as a cyborg.

The cultists clapped and cheered as he walked toward them, unable to keep their excitement from their faces. The bus driver who almost hit Cory entered the room, followed by a few other men in hoods. 

“How did it go, bus driver?” Hitler said, unamused.

“W-well sir, we dropped him off in Iowa but he was able to survive the depression and didn’t kill himself…” the bus driver stuttered, unable to make eye contact.

“You are a fool. You,” he pointed to one of the men with the hoods, “remove your hood.”

The man removed his hood, revealing himself to be Kanye East, the poet and less known of the Kanye brothers. He enjoyed writing poetry about nature and taking walks in parks. He was also a philosopher who studied France for a living. He was the epitome of human suffering.

“Are you ready to take Cory to hell?” Hitler asked him slowly, Kanye nodded, “Excellent, go on then.”

The man ran away, leaving Hitler behind with the bus driver and three men in hoods. One of the men stepped forward.

“Ay Hitler, my gang and I were gunna try to take Cory again, dey are ready dis time.” He said, similarly to how a mob boss would speak.

“Good, only do it if Cory doesn’t survive hell, though. Knowing Kanye, you won’t have to worry about that, though.” Hitler sighed, “Our destinies will soon reveal themselves, we will defeat the president and bring back order. Dismissed.”

The remaining people walked away, leaving Hitler alone.

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Cory was relaxing in his room, trying to count the holes in the wall and pass the time quickly. He was grounded by order of the president, and couldn’t leave his room. Cory had tried to get two pieces of bread instead of one at breakfast, a direct violation of the White House terms of service. While his room was searched by the CIA, they found more rations of bread in his room, resulting in his in house suspension. 

Cory felt very guilty, as if he had betrayed the entire country. He had sinned, and his sin was treachery. Cory decided he wasn’t fit for modern life anymore, so he began cutting a hole in the wall with his katana, breaking another law of the land. He then ran away to the woods near DC, running toward a nearby mountain. 

Feeling eyes watch him, Cory cautiously walked on, only to be attacked by a mountain lion. Cory fought off the mountain with his bare hands, punching it and kicking it until it was dead. An ominous presence watched from the bushes, unmoving and awaiting the right moment. The right moment came finally, and he made his entrance by jumping from a tree, right in front of Cory.

“Sire, dost thou have no place to go?” Kanye East said, pacing around.

“Sorry, I don’t speak German,” Cory began walking away.

“No-no sire, it is English, I wish to show you a splendid new place!”

“Ah, splendid? Show me.”

Kanye led Cory to a sign next to a cave, Cory couldn’t read it because it was old English.

“Basically it says everyone in here should give up hope.”

Cory excitedly walked into the cave, having already given up all hope. The dark wet cave became smaller and smaller until it ended at a small hole only a skinny person could fit through. Cory could not fit through it. Eventually they found if they blew up the wall Cory could fit through. It worked, they were in.

They looked around at the dark cave full of people. All the people were being chased by swarms of hornets, as maggots ate at their feet. Luckily, Cory was wearing shoes. They made their way across the field of people, avoiding the swarms.

“So, what is this place?” Cory asked, curious.

“This is inferno or in your simple minded language, h e double hockey stick, or in your somewhat more smart but still stupid language, hell.”

Cory looked around in amazement at the people being chased by swarms, seeing the fear in their eyes made him excited, “So all people in hell get chased by swarms?”

“Oh no, these are only the neutral people, the people who didn’t do anything wrong but didn’t do anything good.” Kanye smiled evilly as he took Cory toward the entrance to the next room, where a boat awaited them to cross into hell.

They made their way across the river, noticing how calm the water was. Cory reached down to take a drink, but was stopped by Kanye, who told him the river was made of mercury. As they reached the bank of the river, Kanye jumped from the boat and landed on the shore, looking upon the first part of hell. Cory got out and looked upon the people of this part, seeing the people wandering around, forever looking upon the plain landscape.

“So what did these people do?” Cory asked, looking at the dead faces they made.

“Them? Probably nothing. They just didn’t believe.” 

Cory, not understanding, accepted that he was stupid and didn’t say anything. They continued on. As they walked through the barren landscape, Cory recognized figures such as Ghandi and a few people dressed as popes. There was nothing these people could do to escape, and they were forever burdened by their choices. 

As they approached the next level, Kanye turned to Cory, “This next layer is where the punishments begin, be ready.”

Cory nodded and followed Kanye into the next layer, only to be stopped by Minos, the judge of hell.

“You mates ain’t going in unless yer ready to be judged,” the serpentine creature said, sounding very Australian.

“Ah, it seems as if Minos is going to stop us, isn’t that pleasant…” Kanye began pointing at Cory’s sword, telling him to use it with his lips.

Cory didn’t get the message, and stared up at minos in awe. Reluctantly, Kanye pulled the sword out of its holder and handed it to Cory, telling him to fight the monster. Cory slowly walked up to it and stabbed it gently with the sword, slaying the beast. Minos’s boomerang collection fell out of his pocket, and they each grabbed a few boomerangs, stealing his emu in the process and entering the second layer of hell.

As soon as they entered, they covered their eyes with their hands, shielding their faces from the harsh winds. Kanye took his coat and covered himself with it, while Cory hid behind the emu.

“What is this one?” Cory yelled over the storm.

 

“Lust! They are forever whipped around by the storm, hurry up let’s go!”

They ran across the circle, reaching the end with their emu, who was very whiplashed from the storm. They slowly walked through the cave toward the next layer, noticing that a slush was starting to form on the ground as they moved on. Soon enough, they entered the murky, slush filled part of hell. The people instantly ran toward the emu, eating it and leaving only a few bones behind. These people were hungry. Among the people, Cory could make out many actors that went on to be fat, lazy bums.

“Before you ask, this is the layer of the people who were greedy, and ate too much.”

A loud howl was heard from the other side of the circle, seemingly near a large silhouette Cory could barely make out. As they came nearer, Cory could see it was a large, three-headed creature with claws and sharp talons. It turned as they approached, screeching with it’s mouth as it clawed at the gluttonous people, causing them to howl.

“Ah, Cerberus, hello again, you seem to be doing well,” Kanye smirked at the creature politely, it shrieked back at him.

Cory began to inch away from Cerberus, but the creature moved with him, reading his every move. Cory then looked down on his stomach, and saw he was only hungry. He ran over to one of the people and grabbed them with his strong glove, throwing the person into the creature's mouth. He repeated this process for the other mouths, feeding the creature and gaining them access to the next layer.

“That was good, Cory, but remember that there are other types of greed.”

They entered the fourth layer and were instantly greeted by Pluto, a mystical person and the guardian of the greedy.

“Hey guys, welcome to the fourth layer, or as I like to call it the fun zone! Want some gold?” He held out a tiny chest of gold, holding it in front of Cory. Cory grabbed a handful of gold and put it in his pocket, weighing him down and making him slower.

“Ah, you’ll fit right in here, C- dawg. Now, let’s get onto that tour, shall we?”

The deity led them up stairs and into the actual layer, where many people were jousting with long, heavy weapons. Cory realised that they pushed with their chests, as if they had a heavy weight on their chests due to their greediness in real life.

“Here’s the entertainment, dudes. As you can see, it’s free and if you’re not satisfied you can have more gold. Who know? Maybe you’ll be here forever one day,” the deity shrugged, smirking at them.

They moved across the field, avoiding the jousting matches and kicking away people who had been stabbed. Cory tripped and fell into a small pond, unable to swim with the weight of the gold in his pocket.

“Drop the gold, idiot,” Kanye screamed at him.

“But it’s money, I love money.”

“Shut up, Kanye. He can do whatever he wants,” Pluto said, waving his hand around.

Cory had to make a decision, money, or his life. It was tough. Was he greedy or not? Cory dropped the coins and instantly could swim again, finding his way back to the shore and walking on with Kanye to the next layer.

“Make sure you stop by again soon, yes?” They ignored Pluto.

They boarded another boat, this time to get through a disgusting greenish reddish swamp, the fifth circle of hell. The people of this layer constantly fight each other for dominance on the surface of the muddy water, pushing others down into the depths of the water. As Cory looked down into the water, he could see people down below the water, not moving.

“Are those people dead?”

“All these people are dead, young Cory. Those are the people who were passively aggressive during their lives, this is the fifth circle: the swamp of wrath, for those who were aggressive during their lives.”

Cory nodded, still not understanding, as he looked upon two mud covered people fighting. One pushed the other below the water and stood upon them, only to be pushed away by another who kicked them both. This fighting was pointless, no one ever won.

Eventually they found their way to the shore, where they hit a large, strangely shaped wall, the entrance to lower hell. They walk up to the gate and, noticing the gate needs an angel's touch to open, blow it up. They were now in the sixth part of hell.

Cory instantly noticed the temperature increase, fire was all around them. Within the field were many flaming coffins, each with a person screaming inside.

“These are the heretics, those who go against the word, openly defy everything,” Kanye said profoundly.

“Ah, so these people did things against their country?”

“No, that’s later, these people went against everyone and mocked them.”

Cory looked upon the flaming tombs as he walked through the scorching field, reading a few names such as Bill Clinton and Napoleon the third (not the king, the loser one who didn’t do anything). They eventually reached the other side, only to be hit with a terrible odor.

They slowly climbed down the cliffs surrounding the seventh circle, avoiding the minotaur that guards the layer, and entered it. Within this room were many people desperately trying to get out of a lake of boiling blood.

“These people were violent against others, people they may or may not have known, terrible people.”

The two continued on to the next room of this circle, which was divided into three rooms. The next room was much larger, filled with many trees and bird ladies, harpies. Strangely, the trees seemed to have faces.

“These are the people who committed suicide, those who were violent against themself. They are turned into trees, and cannot speak unless hurt. The harpies hurt them many times, but they can only speak in whispers.”

Cory turned to a tree with a woman who was trying to sob. He took out his sword and cut her bark, making her suddenly burst out crying, and she spoke.

“Please, help us. Kill us all. It’s the least you can do… please…” she begged.

Cory nodded and walked back to the first room, getting some fire on a piece of cloth, and threw it at the trees. Cory and Kanye ran as the forest of suicides burned, the people screaming with joy as they were brutally burned. Cory and Kanye then walked to the final room of the seventh circle.

Cory stood in awe as they entered the room, seeing a large area filled with scorching sand as fireballs slowly fell to the sky. It was mystifying, even though it was horrifying. The people in this area were doing three different things, some were stretched across the burning sand, with faces of agony as their backs were scorched. Some others were running in circles infinitely, never ceasing. Finally, the last group sat weeping, for their sins were too great.

“The ones lying down are those violent against HIM, the ones running were violent against nature, and the ones that are weeping are violent against art.” Kanye scratched his chin thoughtfully.

Cory looked down upon one of the people lying down, but got over his ability to care for them soon enough and was ready for the next circle. Soon enough, they heard the roar of the waterfall that led to the eighth part of hell. As they approached, Minos, the judge of hell, appeared again before them, holding a boomerang shaped sword.

“Yer not gettin in dere, mates,” he said, holding his sword high above him, his snake-like arms coiling around the handle.

Cory stepped forward with his katana, ready. The two sprang at each other, each releasing a barrage of attacks that were blocked by the other. Cory jumped off a rock and flew above Minos, aiming his sword downward, only to be blocked by Minos, who recoiled and knocked Cory back a few feet.

The two locked eyes as Minos slithered forward, using his tentacle appendages to try to hit Cory. Cory jumped over the tentacles and did a downward thrust, cutting them off. The creature screamed and began throwing boomerangs at Cory, all of which were blocked by the young boy.

Cory did a slide attack and sliced at Minos’s hips, tearing a gash in his side. Minos screamed again, throwing another barrage of boomerangs, taking Cory by surprise. Cory was hit by a boomerang and quickly recovered, rubbing where the blade had cut his shoulder. Angry, Cory charged at the creature full force and released hundreds of swipes, surprising the monster, who was chopped to pieces.

Kanye clapped as Cory sheathed his katana, following Kanye into the eighth layer of hell.


	7. Cory's Inferno Part II

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cory and Kanye East enter the heart of the underworld.

The two made their way through the cliffs on the outskirts of the 7th layer of hell, slowly climbing up and down in order to get to the eighth layer, and then finally the ninth layer. Kanye was an expert climber, and Cory was an expert at getting towed around by Kanye’s ropes. 

Suddenly, a shrill screech echoed in the canyons, alerting Cory to the presence of a large bird-like creature with human faces. It flapped its wings slowly as it made it’s way towards them, it’s large shadow ominously moving over the cliff. It was the Geryon, the master of fraud. Cory got an idea as it moved closer and jumped from the cliff onto the monster's back, stabbing it, thus controlling it. 

Kanye jumped down onto the creature next to Cory, and they rode the monster through the cliffs, toward the eighth circle. It was then that Cory realised that the creature wasn’t large at all, it was only a fraud. The creature was actually a small emu, tirelessly flapping it’s wings. The Geryon landed them safely next to the entrance to the long, wind tunnel esque eighth circle. 

As they entered, Cory realised that the entire length was full of punishments for different types of sins. Kanye jumped in and said, “Fraud, there are many different types of it, that is why the master of these lands has given fraud many different types of punishment.”

They walked toward the first crowd of people, as Kanye explained “These are the panderers and seducers, those who tell lies and evilly trick people into liking them.” 

These people walked around in two lines, marching along. On the sides of both lines stood large, horned demons, each holding a whip. They whipped the humans all at the same time. With each whip crack, Cory flinched as he saw the pain of the people, knowing they deserved this for eternity.

Kanye motioned Cory to move on, and they walked forward to the next group of sinners, “these are the flatterers, those who use their tongues to trick others into servitude, vile creature, they are.”

They stood in a large pool filled with a brown, mud like substance. They howled, fought, and even cried as they stood in the pool for eternity. As Cory stared, a foul smell hit his nose.

“Feces,” Kanye said as he plugged his nose.

“What?”

“That’s feces.”

“What is feces?”

Kanye looked down, ashamed at Cory’s stupidity, “poop.”

Cory got that word, he looked in disgust as the people fought in the human waste, giving the entire picture a new meaning. Cory fell down and threw up onto one of the people belows head, they didn’t seem to notice. The person walked away and started to fight another person, still covered in puke.

The two moved on, coming across a bridge, the next group of sinners. These people were placed with their heads within tube-like holes on top of the wood. At their feet were fires, some of them bigger than others. They never burned, but they seemed to feel the pain, “Ah, those who sold false items in the church, they are blinded and burned, never able to do anything but be tortured.”

“Why are some fires bigger than others?”

“Some are worse than others.”

Cory got bored of looking at burning people, and began to move on toward the next group. Kanye ran after Cory to catch up. They began to cross the next bridge, where people walked around with their heads twisted backwards, walking backward for eternity. 

Cory looked at Kanye expectantly, but he said nothing. He merely walked toward a woman who said nothing as well. He stared at her, she couldn’t see him, she was blinded by her tears. Kanye then walked away from her, a single tear rolling down his face.

“These are the sorcerers, those who tricked others with false magic.”

“Who was that lady?”

“That was Hannah Montana, my old girlfriend who told people she could transform into two different forms.”

Cory nodded, getting bored of these backwards headed freaks and decided to move on to the next part of the eighth circle. They came upon a large pit of tar, boiling tar to be specific. Around the edges were demons with large claws, and sometimes grappling hooks.

“What is this?”

“This is the tar pit for the corrupt politicians, they lay beneath the tar, unable to escape due to the demons. Forever boiling for eternity.”

Cory watched as one tried to surface, only to be grappled by a demon and pulled toward the shore. Kanye walked to the demon and said something in a weird language. The demon nodded and grabbed the man, who still had a grappling hook in his shoulder.

“Tell us who you are, barrator.” Kanye approached the damned victim, staring him down.

“O-oh…. It is you…”

“Tell us. Now.”

“I-I am Justin Trudeau, prime minister of Canada…”

“Throw him back in.”

The demon swung his hook around, Justin flying with it, and threw it out into the lake of boiling tar, making Justin disappear below the surface. The two outsiders began walking toward the sixth punishment. People in this area were forced to walk across a narrow beam for all eternity, weighted down by lead ropes.

“These are those who said something, but also said something else: the hypocrites. They are weighted down by the guilt they should have felt. See them shine? On the outside they appear pure, but they are vile on the inside.” Kanye held up the emu from the third circle dramatically posing.

Cory began walking across the beam, occasionally pushing a few off. As they fell, they turned to ashes, only to be reformed back at the beginning. As Cory went on, he saw that as far as the eye could see there were beams with millions of people crossing them. The two quickly made their way to the other side of the bridge, trying not to fall off.

“We are nearly to the ninth layer, only a few more punishments to get through,” Kanye began walking toward the next group of people, who were within a large pit. As Cory came upon the edge of the pit, he noticed it was full of large reptiles, some that he had never seen before. The worst part: there was no way around the pit.

“Careful now, they shouldn’t hurt you but they might if you’re not careful, young one.”

Cory jumped down into the pit, slowly inching forward to the sound of hissing. Kanye didn’t seem to mind, and walked quicker than Cory.

“These are the thieves, who stole from others to better themselves. They are trapped within this reptile pit, unchanged by the life they once lived.”

Cory saw one man run toward him, he was short and bald. As Cory saw him get closer, he noticed the man had no iris’s. No one in hell did.

“Young man, please save me from this pit of snakes, I am Napoleon Bonaparte, the great emperor of France! You must let me follow you to escape!” the man shouted, raising his arms up high.

Just as Cory was about to speak, a snake lunged at Napoleon, biting him straight in the face. The man screamed, bursting into flames as his body turned to ashes. Soon, he was reformed into a human, reborn from the ashes.

“Please, you must help me. I cannot live like this!”

“Well, I guess you could come with us, maybe…” Cory replied, unsure.

“Oh grazie! Thank you kind sir!”

The two made it to the end of the pit, where Kanye awaited Cory’s arrival.

“You found Napoleon? I don’t think we can actually save people down here, Cory.”

They started climbing out of the pit. Cory and Kanye made it out, and Napoleon started climbing out, only to be stopped by a large man with the body of a horse, a centaur. Around him slithered many snakes, coiling around his body, hissing. On his shoulder sat a small, fire breathing lizard. 

“Napoleon Bonaparte, it seems that you have sinned once again. Not facing your punishment, what a coward,” Cacus, the centaur, shouted, grabbing the man and hoisting him on his back, running off.

Shocked, Kanye and Cory decided to just move on. Trying to forget what they had witnessed. The tunnel became more cavernous, becoming uneven with small walkways.

“We’re getting closer,” Kanye continued walking.

They came across a small ledge on the edge of the wall, with just enough room for them to walk across. Below them, in a gigantic pit, flames moved about, almost in a human manner.

“Those are the sinners below, trapped within flames for eternity. Some don’t even remember who they once were. These are the counsellors of fraud, those who used their positions and power to deceive others.”

The two quickly made their way to the next room, where a large demon with a bloody sword stood, chopping people.

“The sowers of discord, as once in life they separated others, now they are separated themselves,” Kanye stared at the demon, and moved on. Cory quickly following, trying to get the picture out of his head.

They entered the final part of the eighth circle. Cory noticed everyone was sick and suffering. Various diseases could be seen such as smallpox, the plague, and even herpes.

“These are the remaining sinners who committed fraud, those who do not fit the other categories exactly. Much like a disease, they ruined society, and now they are ruined themselves. A perfect form of justice, no?”

Cory nodded, running through the field of sick people, witnessing crying, fighting, and disgusting images from the horrible diseases of the sinners. The two approached another large wall, with giants surrounding it.

“We are here. The ninth circle of hell. First we must get into it, though.”

The two began to climb the wall, ignoring the giants, and eventually reached the top, Cory being towed along. At the top, Cory realised that it wasn’t a wall, it was actually a large well that led into the ninth area. They began climbing down into the pit, making their way to the bottom. Surprisingly, the temperature began to lower as they came closer to the bottom.

Kanye and Cory jumped, landing on the bottom of the pit, in a large frozen lake. Within the ice were people, some lower than others. Some even had their heads sticking out of the water.

“These are those who are treacherous, those who have betrayed others.”

At the word ‘betray,’ Cory realised that since he betrayed his country, he would now be within these people. He was destined to be buried within this frozen lake for eternity.

“There are three classes in here, those who betrayed their guests are nearly the ice with their tears frozen to their eyes, those who betrayed their friends are the highest out of the ice, and finally, those who betrayed their country are held with their head barely out of the ice.”

Cory thought about himself with his head barely out of the ice as he walked along. He accidentally kicked one of the head, turning around to appologize.

“It’s ok, HE does it all the time.”

“Who?”

“You know…”

Cory did not know. The two people continued onward across the frozen lake, reaching another group of sinners, all of which were below the ice, twisted in strange positions. Forever trapped in a prison of ice, never able to move or speak. The ultimate punishment.

“I have never made it this far, it appears there’s a fourth group, those who have betrayed their lords. Much like their hearts, they are completely frozen in ice.”

Cory then realised that he hadn’t just betrayed his country, he had also betrayed his lord, the president. Cory wouldn’t even have his head out of the ice, he would be frozen forever below the ice. He fell down onto the ice, looking down upon the person below. He started hitting the ice, trying to free the person, but the ice was as hard as concrete.

Suddenly, two figures appeared before Kanye and Cory. One was a tall man wearing a large red robe and a crown of branches. He held out a large medieval sword, ready. The other looked even more old fashioned than the first. He wore spartan armor, without the helmet, over a toga, holding his hooked blade at the ready.

“Why have you come, travellers?” the man with the robe asked, holding his sword higher.

Kanye turned to Cory, “I think this is Dante and his friend, the poet Virgil, my personal heroes.”

Cory turned toward the men, “we wish to get passed you, to the final chamber.”

“We cannot let you do that,” Virgil held his sword up with both hands, ready to fight.

Dante charged at Cory, swinging his large blade in a sweeping motion toward him, which Cory dodged, sliding across the ice. Cory used his momentum to turn around, slicing the ice with his sword as he swung upwards, slicing Dante’s robes, but missing the man.

Meanwhile, Virgil jumped toward Kanye, swinging his blade at the man. Kanye blocked with his metal boomerang he had grabbed earlier. Falling to his knees as he slide away, he threw the boomerang, only to have Virgil dodge the flying object.

Dante charged Cory, swinging his sword downward to hit the boy, but Cory slid around Dante, swinging his own katana at the man. Dante used his sword to push away and slide on the ice. Cory used the same tactic, closely following Dante at a high speed.

Kanye caught his boomerang, getting up and throwing it again. Virgil swing his sword at it, knocking it out of the air, but also knocking his sword out of his hand. Kanye charged at Virgil, swinging his leg at the poet, and his own hero.

Dante did a 180 degree turn on the ice, and charged at Cory, sliding at him with his sword held out. Cory blocked the attack, pushing Dante away with his katana. Dante turned his sword upside down in his hand, and grabbed a second sword out of his belt. Cory charged at the man, hitting and blocking attacks while keeping his balance on the ice. 

Dante pushed Cory and threw his sword at him, catching Cory off guard. The sword hilt hit Cory in the knee, knocking him to the ground. Cory laid the on back on the ground as Dante walked toward him, his sword pointed toward Cory’s chest. Cory quickly swung his katana at the man’s feet, knocking him down as well, and making him drop his last sword. The boy used his momentum to regain his ground, standing above the swordless man.

“You mustn’t do this, the thing we are guarding should not be seen by mortal eyes,” the man pleaded.

“I must make my name right again.”

“This isn’t the way to do it, young one, there’s more to this than you know.”

Cory thought this over, and stabbed the man, claiming his first life. Kanye had also defeated Virgil, but the poet was merely knocked out. Cory and Kanye walked through the door to the final room, the center of hell.

In the center of the ice cover floor was a large creature with three faces. He was waist deep in ice, and chains covered his arms, tying him for eternity. The beast had gigantic wings on it’s back, but they seemed nonfunctional. It was the epitome of ignorance, impotence, and hatred, Satan.

As they entered the room, they walked up a large rock that led near the beasts faces. As they approached, they were filled with dread at the horror of the beast. Satan lunged for them, but was unable to get to them due to the chains.

It spoke with a deep, raspy voice, cold as ice, “Welcome to the center of hell, fools.”

Cory realised if he could slay this beast, he would be saved from his sins and could possibly escape his eternal prison of ice.

Cory drew his weapon, holding it off the side as he stared into the eyes of Satan, determined to defeat the epitome of evil itself. The two stared at each other, a silence formed over the cold room. Kanye stood back and stared in horror at the beast. 

Cory lunged at the beast, jumping onto it’s nose and stabbing it a few times. Satan roared as it whipped its faces around, Cory holding on for dear life. He jumped up, slicing at the creature’s wings, unable to make a dent.

“It’s immortal, Cory, you cannot defeat it.”

Cory, thinking Kanye was talking about his sins, started hitting harder, determined to defeat the creature, and, in turn, his sins. Cory continued slicing at the creature until he was exhausted, unto which he fell from the creature, landing behind it onto the ice. He watched as he sank below the ice, accepting his fate.

Suddenly, he was in a different place, a warmer place. All around him was light. Across from him was a woman. She was very beautiful and looked angelic.

“Cory,” she said, “you have done it. You have showed courage and have conquered all your sins!”

“But, I didn’t defeat Satan…”

“No, but you have defeated his treachery. I am Beatrice, your guardian angel. You will now be transported back to the surface.”

“Thank you, I didn’t want to be trapped in a prison of ice…”

“Yes, I know. Just for your information, Kanye was planning on killing you for his master this entire time, but he seems to have spared you because of his empathy. I warn you, he has stolen some of Satan’s spit, this gives him the power to revive someone who was once sent to hell.”

“Don’t worry, I don’t think he’s going to use it on anyone, I know him well.”

Cory blinked, and was suddenly in the middle of a field outside Washington DC. He hit the ground, having not finished talking to Beatrice. He grabbed his katana, and began his long journey home.


	8. The Internet

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The president tests a new device on Cory.

Cory stroked his katana, feeling the cold steel with his small, frail hands. He was within his room, sitting on his bed. Outside, rain poured down, soaking DC in a triumphant scene. The katana in Cory’s hand glowed dully, making the entire room a bit brighter. There were no lights in the closet he lived in, so the sword was now his main source of light to push back the darkness.

Becoming bored, Cory decided to go talk to the president, whom he hadn’t seen since he had betrayed the country. He walked down the halls toward the oval office, looking down so he wouldn’t make eye contact with anyone. Eventually, after a tiring walk up a flight of stairs, he arrived at the door, and cautiously knocked.

“Enter, Cory.”

Cory entered, staring at the president, “how did you know?”

“I know everything, Cory.”

“I’m bored, give me something to do…”

The president took a large chug of absinthe, almost choking, and stood up, motioning Cory to follow him. They slowly made their way down the hallways to the elevator, which led them into the secret presidential lab, which had created his katana glove. They made their way to the end of the room, where a large group of scientists were gathered. 

“I found you guys a test subject,” the president said, pushing Cory toward them.

The scientists happily took Cory and placed him to a chair, strapping him in and securing a machine on his head. The machine was large, with lots of lights and tubes coming out of it.

“Name?” one of the scientists holding a tablet asked.

“U-uh… um… It’s C-cory.”

“18 or older?”

Cory nodded eagerly, but the president shook his head.

“Sex?”

Cory didn’t know what that word meant, the president whispered it to the scientist, who put a question mark in the field.

“Welcome to the first test of our brand new internet experience, we have recreated the internet as a virtual world, instead of usernames and passwords you’ll have one ID, this will be used everywhere. Please stay calm as we inject you with 40 different chemicals.

Cory braced himself as scientists, one by one, began giving him shots. Cory began feeling numb, and very dizzy. His head felt like it was in a dream world, everything was blurring. The last image he saw before his eyes was the president laughing at his state.

Cory woke up within a field next to a large city. He looked around at the tall grass, not knowing where he was. He reached for his katana, but he wasn’t wearing it anymore. Cory stood up and started stretching, the effects of the injections wearing off. He reached into his pocket, and felt something. Pulling it out, he realised it was an ID card. He was in the internet.

Cory began wandering toward the city. As he went along, he admired the appearance of everything. It looked so natural, maybe even more natural than real life. The wind blew through the grass, causing pollen caught on the blades to fly with the wind, mystifying Cory. It appeared to be summer, different from real life, where it was spring. 

As he neared the city, he realised it was a large metropolis, but no one was in it. The city  
wasn’t abandoned, it just wasn’t populated. Cory walked into the city, looking around for something to do. Billboards everywhere carried ads for pills and other scams, filling Cory with dread as he remembered the growth pills.

Cory entered a building on his right, labeled ‘information.’ As he entered, he saw large boards telling him about the place he was in.

“Welcome to the world wide web. This is the main metropolis of the internet, where all the most popular sites thrive. Outside of that are the smaller public sites. Far away on the north side is the private part of the internet, and the deep areas. The deep areas are guarded by specially trained guards, you won’t be getting in there. Thank you for using the internet!”

Cory ran outside and began searching for his favorite website, tumblr. He eventually found it, entering. Inside, Cory found many strange beings were speaking in robot voices. These were the users who were not within the internet. Cory, being the only one within the internet, was the only human in this world.

Most of the users were complaining about stupid stuff, so Cory started to leave. He walked outside, looking up at the skyline. One building dominated the entire city, the google building. It seemed to devour all other buildings near it, making them part of it. 

Cory looked around for a map, but only found stairs to a subway. As he entered, he realised that this was the search engine. He jumped onto the bullet car and entered ‘otaku culture’ in the keyboard. The car’s visor shut, and it flew off as fast as sound, going straight to the large google building, giving him a large tablet with all the results of his search. Cory picked his favorite Japanese culture website, and was instantly transported to the building. 

Everyone in the room held a katana, some had fedoras on their heads. The users were talking about how Japan was the greatest place on Earth, and how it would one day rule the world. Cory, knowing Japan no longer existed (the United States accidentally destroyed Japan and took all their art and architecture to keep its culture alive), joined the discussion.

“You guys know that Japan doesn-” Cory was interrupted by a group of users dressed as the police, who erased everyone’s memory and removed Cory from the site.

“You must not tell government secrets,” it said, in a robot voice. They then left, leaving Cory alone again, naturally.

Meanwhile, in the real world, scientists realised they had forgotten to make a way to get him out of the internet. 

“What do you mean you don’t know how to do it?? We need him for the project!” the president began shouting at the scientists, overreacting.

“I guess it may be possible for him to escape… if he gets to the deep part of the internet and shuts off the entire internet, but he will never figure out how to do that…”

“You must have some way of sending someone into there, right?”

“Ah, yes, we may have someone we can call up to send someone into there, but they are not human.”

“Who cares? Just send the aliens in there, I don’t care!”

Later, Cory began walking down the street, not knowing where to go. Half of the city was blocked off from him, due to his age. Suddenly, Cory felt as if he was being watched by someone. He turned and looked around, not seeing anyone but still feeling fear. The boy began to run for his life from an unknown enemy, accidentally running into one of the age restriction barriers.

A figure jumped from the top of a building, landing before him as a blue blur. The figure moved their cape away from themselves, revealing themselves as Xerath, the blue alien girl. She was part of a race of aliens known as the Xerath's. 

“Cory, it appears you are in need once again,” she said, throwing her cape behind her back.

“Yes, I am looking for a new site to go to.”

“Oh, you don’t wish to escape this world?”

Cory looked at her, confused, “why would I want to escape? This place is great!”

Xerath shook her head in shock, “you must go back to the real world, they need you.”

Cory gave in and asked how they could get out.

“You must go to the deep area of the internet, and shut down the entire world wide web. Such a catastrophic event will bring you back to the real world, but we are unsure what will happen to you before you wake up.”

“Sounds good, let’s go.”

“No, I will follow you but cannot accompany you in this world. Also try not to make too many stops on the way to the deep web.”

Cory nodded, and Xerath jumped up, disappearing in a blue blur. Cory looked around, trying to figure out how to get to the outside of the city. He started walking down one of the streets toward the outskirts of the city. As he walked, he saw a dating site and couldn’t help himself; he entered.

Inside, he found many people talking at different tables. All of them had preferences above their heads. Cory walked up to one girl who said she liked tall, rich guys. Cory realised that this was another thing he could add to his list of qualities he needs to get a girl. Cory walked over to the archive room, where he discovered Tim (the guy from Iowa) had most of the posts on the website, at least before he went to maximum security prison. Most of the girls he talked to had told him to go away, other than one who just wanted him for his money that he claimed to have.

Cory exited, realising Tim had a better chance of getting a girl than him. He kept walking toward the edge of town, nearing the suburbs. Before he could get there, though, he ran into the ghetto of town, where all the sketchy looking sites existed. Advertisement billboards were everywhere. Most of the buildings were painted in bright colors with a black background, making them look cheap and sketchy.

Nevertheless, Cory decided to enter one site, where a real life psychic could give you a reading. Cory pulled out his ID and gave his information to the site, admitting himself into the door. He stood there, and 0.02 bitcoins were taken from his account (about 30 dollars at this time). His mind was ‘read’ and he was given a fortune, “your reading wasn’t clear, please donate again to get a clearer reading. Cory donated again, which yielded him the same message. Cory decided that he wasn’t in the mood to get his mind read again, and moved past the ghetto into the suburbs. 

The suburbs were nicer, but still bad quality. Here were mostly personal sites and blogs, boring stuff. Cory decided to hurry through this section the internet and move on the the deep area. This area was far away from the rest of the internet, surrounded by a wall of fire and many guards.

Xerath swooped down, and handed him another ID card, this one was different though.

“You’ll need this to get past the guards, you can thank me later,” she winked, though in a friendly way. As mentioned before, no girl likes Cory.

Cory thanked her and looked down at his new ID. This one had the letters T, O, and R at the top, with an onion symbol on the opposite side. It was a card to get past the guards, but it didn’t look very useful against the firewall. 

Cory continued forward to the lines of guards. They were large, blurry users. They seemed to carry some sort of gun, but Cory couldn’t make out what it would do. He didn’t want to find out. 

Using the ID card, he was able to easily make his way past the many guards, and approached the firewall. Taking a deep breath, Cory jumped through the wall, his ID card shone with light, protecting him from the wall. Cory was in.

The deep area of the internet seemed to be below, in the large, well like structure the firewall protected. Cory climbed the stairs up the walls, going up so high he could see the city clearly. Cory looked over the fields around the city. The city was gigantic, but there was so much more area that could be covered. It seemed to go on forever.

Did Cory really want to leave this place? He could make a life here, he could live in isolation, never again having to see another human. Even after the entire world fell, he could still live here. 

No. Cory had to go back. He couldn’t abandon his people. Cory turned and walked to the edge of the deep well, looking down. It seemed to go on forever, larger than even the city. It seemed to be difficult to find specific sites in this area, and there didn’t seem to be a way down. Cory realised he had to jump. Maybe there wasn’t fall damage in this world? Who knows?

Cory jumped, not able to keep straight, and landed in one of the sites built into the side of the well. This site was a creepy site about conspiracies. Cory walked through it, occasionally reading some of the content. At the end was a strange passage: “we are all held within a computer simulation, none of this is real.”

Cory thought about this, if scientists could make a computer simulation in real life, why couldn’t they all be living within a computer simulation? How many simulations are there until you reach the real world? Is there even a real world? Cory fell over, he had thought too hard and now his brain was dying.

Cory recovered, turning back to the well and jumping once again into the abyss. This time, he landed in a site that claimed to have evidence of aliens. It featured many pictures of what Cory realised was him and Xerath talking at night. Someone had ignored the curfew in Washington DC.

Cory jumped again, this time falling for a straight 10 minutes, only to land once again in another site. This one claimed to be a group of people who had revived Hitler. Cory laughed as he read that they recovered an elixir of life from Satan and were able to revive him fully, planning to take over the white house in the coming years.

Jumping again, this time falling for 20 minutes, Cory landed in a site that sold a telephone that could let you talk to fourth dimensional beings. Cory bought two of them for 0.2 bitcoins each. 

Eventually, Cory found himself at the bottom of the Deep well, but noticed that it went down further if he wanted to explore more. No, he had to turn off the internet and escape this world. He walked through the sliding door at the bottom of the well, leading through 8 security checks and to a console with a single button. Cory pressed the button, bracing himself for destruction, only to find that was the button to call the elevator. Cory entered the elevator, which moved at the speed of sound, and was able to get to the top in about 1 minute.

He exited the elevator, realising he was presented with the controls for the internet. In front of him was a large glass window that showcased the entire city and the surrounding area. The emptiness of this world was both scary and invigorating. It was as if the city called for people to come, but none came. Cory walked up to the control panel and saw the button that would turn off the internet.

Cory once again considered his options, he could still turn back and live here. He’d been to hell and back, and even to Iowa. He had experienced the worst nightmares in real life, this could be his break, his retirement. Cory closed his eyes, and pressed the button.

He opened them to find the city and everything around in in this world slowly fade away. The entire world faded to pixels in a line that slowly moved toward the tower Cory stood atop. As it came closer, Cory stared in horror. Eventually, even the tower was consumed by the push of the button. 

Cory woke up to darkness. Was he dead? If he was where was he? Then Cory realised he just had his eyes shut and opened them. The scientists all looked bummed, and the president looked like he was about the kill Cory.

“You pressed the delete button, idiot!” the president said, grabbing Cory by the collar.

“O-oh s-sorry…”

“Sorry ain’t good enough. I use the internet all the time instead of doing work, what am I supposed to do now??”

Cory thought about it, but couldn’t think of an answer. Eventually the president calmed down, but he once again grounded Cory to his room, this time planting officers at the door. Cory polished his katana all day everyday, wondering whether he should have stayed in that world or not, and whether fate made him press the wrong button.


	9. The Fedora Part I

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cory is captured by the Creepypasta gang.

“It was left behind, you must find it.”

Cory awoke, hitting his head on the ceiling of his small room. Outside, there was a large storm. Thunder shook the white house while the sound of heavy rain carried throughout the entire city. 

Cory turned and sat on the edge of his bed, thinking about the dream he just had. That voice seemed so familiar, as if it was an old friend. He knew that couldn’t be it though, he never had any friends before he moved to DC. Within the dream, he was in total darkness, his katana being the only thing seen. He knew someone was out there, but as he ran toward the silhouette, it moved further away.

What was left behind? Cory got out of bed and grabbed his katana. He walked out his door and toward Newt’s room. He needed to find out.

As he knocked on Newt’s door, he realised a figure was standing at the end of the hall. Cory stared at the person, who appeared to be wearing a hoodie and holding a knife. Cory dropped his katana in shock, and backed away from the figure. Lighting struck, revealing the man’s face.

He was incredibly pale, and had a crazed look in his eyes. His face was covered in dried blood near the mouth and eyes, probably his own. The figure slowly made his way toward Cory, stepping over his katana as Cory backed toward the end of the hallway. 

Cory turned and ran down the stairs, not knowing whether the man was running after him or not. As he reached the bottom, another figure made his appearance near him. This man was also wearing a hoodie and had a blue mask on, some black liquid seeping down his the mask.

As Cory turned, he saw he was cornered, as the man with the knife was right behind him. Cory tried to use chaos control, but was unable to as he didn’t have any chaos emeralds. The two figures knocked him out and dragged him away, taking him to an unknown location.

As Cory awoke, he saw that he was within a grimy prison cell with a dog guarding him. The dog had terrifying teeth that looked like they would rip anyone to shreds. It growled as he neared the bars of the cell, causing Cory to back away.

Cory tried to figure out an escape plan. There was nothing in his cell that would he helpful, actually there was nothing at all in his cell. The dog watched him pace back and forth, thinking about a way to escape. Eventually, he decided to dig a hole through the wall.

He crawled up to the concrete wall and began scraping at it, trying to make it go away. After a few hours, he had only made a small scratch in the concrete. The door opened, and a man entered the room. Cory couldn’t make him out, but he saw that the man held a- you guessed it- knife. 

“Get up,” the man said, nearing him.

“W-where am I?” Cory started getting up.

“You won’t know.”

“Why?”

“Because.”

“Oh.”

The man motioned for him to follow, and they exited the cell. Passing through a ray of moonlight, Cory saw the man was wearing a sort of mouth guard on the outside of his face. 

“Wh-who are you?”

“I am ticci Toby, that’s all you need to know.”

The two made their way through the abandoned prison. As they walked, Cory saw other prisoners, each one cowered in fear as they walked by. Turning around, Cory saw the dog following him, keeping him on task.

They walked up a flight of stairs to a large room, where Toby locked Cory’s hands to a metal pole.

“The boss is out, looks like you’ll be speaking to our branch manager.”

Toby left, leaving Cory in the dark, both literally and figuratively. Cory looked around the room. It looked like a gang boss’s office. Guns hanging from the walls and portraits of ancestors smirking as they are followed by thugs. This must be some sort of DC mafia.

After waiting a while, the door opened to reveal Slenderman, the branch manager. Cory felt a headache coming on as the man moved over to the desk, standing next to it.

“As you may know, the boss is out right now, so I’ll be interrogating you,” the thing spoke, in a deep raspy voice inside Cory’s head, “Get ready to have your mind ripped open.”

Cory felt a huge pain in his head, and felt himself fall unconscious. He woke up again, only to find himself within the depths of his own head. He was in the oval office, but the name on the desk read ‘Cory Baxter.’

Cory stood up and walked out of the door, trying to find a way out of this dream. He knew slenderman was watching, but didn’t want to acknowledge it. As Cory walked down the hall, he saw the man’s white, faceless face staring at him through the window, even though he was on the second floor.

“Tell me where the object is!” rang through Cory’s head, causing him a lot of pain.

“I-I don’t understand,” Cory screamed, falling to his knees.

He looked up and saw the man right before him, staring him down and causing him more pain.

“Tell me now!”

“I don’t know!!”

Cory painfully stood up and began running from slenderman, sliding down the stairs and into the main entrance hall. Every door Cory ran for was locked, and the man kept appearing in windows. Cory stopped and fell to the ground again as the man jumped out of a door, tentacles out and grabbing Cory.

“You must tell me where the object of importance is!”

“I. Don’t. Know!” Cory shouted as everything began to melt away. 

Cory woke up again in a different place, this was the mall, but there were only girls here. Cory looked down and saw he was even shorter than before. This was another one of his nightmares. The one where he was even shorter, so he couldn’t even talk to girls.

As he ran through the mall, the girls laughed at his shortness and made fun of him. Cory ignored them, seeing the bigger threat behind them: Slenderman slowly gliding over toward him. Cory ran toward the exit, and was suddenly back in the prison cell from before. This time there was a large hole in the wall, allowing Cory to escape.  
Outside, he saw this place was right next to the destroyed abandoned building from when he first encountered slenderman. Cory didn’t realise it because he’s stupid, but this gang had been tracking him since he had first met Xerath. They were trying to capture him since then as well. Like when he entered the plane, and Bane appeared, trying to grab Cory.

Cory ran for Washington DC, but was stopped when tentacles engulfed him.

“Show me the nightmare you had!”

“N-No!”

Cory’s vision became clear, and his headache went away. He was now in the abandoned building from before, but that was impossible, this building was destroyed.

Cory ran for the exit, only to find himself once again in complete darkness. He looked down and saw his katana in his hand, lighting the way. This was the nightmare from before.

Slenderman appeared, lighting the entire area and revealing the figure: a woman in a kimono, with a blue face. She looked as if she was possessed, and held up a fedora.

“Yes, finally!” Slenderman said, listening closely.

Cory, realising the direness of this situation, raised his katana and struck Slenderman, causing him to scream in pain.

“What do you think you’re doing? I am a being of immortality!”

Cory raised his katana and swung at slenderman, who teleported behind him. Cory blocked the oncoming tentacles from behind and did a roll to turn around, swiping at the creature. He teleported once again, making Cory’s head hurt worse than anything he had ever felt before. But, due to adrenaline, Cory fought onward. 

The two struggled for a while, fighting each other. Eventually Cory made a slash at the man, ripping his shirt and slicing him. The man screamed and threw his tentacles around Cory, pinning him to the floor.

“You have no idea what you’re doing, boy. You’re on the wrong side! We must get that fedora.”

The blue lady began to speak, more than Cory remembered her speaking.

“The fedora, it was forgotten, you must find it. It is your destiny. I am possessed by the spirit of the evil king. Please, help free me. He doesn’t want you to have it, but you must find it! It was left behind, you must find it.”

Slenderman released him from his grip, and everything faded away. Cory awoke within the prison again. After encountering the blue girl, he realised a lot of stuff. The fedora was magical. He now knew where the fedora was: Japan. He looking down at his hands. They were covered in black blood. Slenderman could bleed.

Cory turned to the door, noticing it was open. A banner on the wall said “Creepypasta mafia.” Cory had a seizure. When the internet still existed, Cory read creepypastas and roleplayed as them all the time, not knowing they were real. His favorite had always been Jake the killer, one of his OCs. Cory now would have to fight his favorite people. He turned to the door and walked out, getting ready to go to Japan.


	10. The Fedora part II

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cory escapes to California and meets up with some Minecraft YouTubers.

The autumn wind whistled through the abandoned prison, give the entire building an eerie, chilling atmosphere. The grey concrete walls added to the effect, with the paint slowly chipping away as nature took back the building. Inside the building, Cory searched frantically for records on the gang. If the internet still existed, Cory would be able to check the creepypasta wiki to learn about them, but, unfortunately, the internet had been deleted thanks to Cory.

Stumbling across a large book, Cory opened it. 2 pounds of dust fell onto the floor off the top of it, causing Cory to cough loudly. The dust was suddenly blown away from the wind, off into the outside world. The book was huge and contained information on every creepypasta gang member. One of the pages was torn out, though. Looking at the index, it appeared to be the page about the boss.

Cory Closed the book and put it in his backpack. It wasn’t heavy, because it was made out of carbon fiber. What should Cory do now? He couldn’t even go back to the white house because the president would know something was up then.

The president had again and again told Cory he couldn’t go to what was left of Japan. His reasoning was because Cory was too weak right now. It was too bad, too, because his katana was still in the white house. 

How could he get to Japan? Well, standing around wasn’t going to get him there. He walked across the dusty, filthy floor, and exited through the door, into the morning light. Walking toward the city, he got a brilliant idea. Chris could help him.

Cory hurried toward the shack on the edge of town where Chris lived. He used to have a real house, but he burned it down to get extra money. As punishment, the president moved him out of the city to a small shack. The shack was about the size of a large closet. It featured a mattress and a door. Sometimes it was also home to rats. 

Cory burst through the door, catching Chris in the process of eating a rat in his underpants. His fat flowed down him, covered in dark hairs. Cory slammed the door shut, then opened in a few minutes to find him eating another rat, this time wearing a kimono.

“Chris I need your help, I need to get to Japan!”

“Talk no more, my friend. I have a few people you can go meet to get you there!”

Cory gasped, “where are they??”

“California.”

The color trained from Cory’s face. California was the worst place on Earth. But to go to Japan, Cory knew he would need to suck it up and face his fears.

“I’ll do it!”

Cory snuck around downtown DC, looking for a vehicle. Eventually, he saw a stray motorcycle with a sidecar on the side of the road. Cory ran up and jumped onto the seat, hurting himself in the process. He kept pressing buttons, but realized that he didn’t turn the keys. The engine roared to life, distorting the air around it with the heat of a thousand tiny explosions. The gasoline flowed smoothly through the tank, fueling the engine. Cory, having never ridden a motorcycle, didn’t know how to get moving. 

The boy kept pressing buttons, but nothing worked. Frustrated, he kicked the side of the bike, setting it off and moving Cory at a high speed. Cory grabbed the handles instinctively as the motorcycles owner ran out the the store he was in, pulling out a gun. Cory took off, riding down the road and narrowly avoiding the bullets of the person he was stealing from. 

As Cory exited onto the highway, he felt as if he was free. He thought too soon. Police cars thundered onto the road, catching up with him. Cory hit the gas and sped off, causing the police cars to speed up as well. Cory quickly maneuvered through the cars on the highway, narrowly avoiding most of them. He couldn’t quite seem to lose the cops.

All of a sudden, Cory saw two semi trucks, right next to each other, on the highway taking up the entire section. He couldn’t get around them, so he had to go through them. He sped up and aimed for the center of the two trucks. As he entered the gap, the sidecar was torn off of the motorcycle, causing Cory to lose his balance and hit the side of one of the trucks. The door opened on the back, and the ramp slide down. 

Cory fell back, dazed. A vision of sonic the hedgehog appeared in his head, telling him he needed to keep going. Sonic needed him to go fast. 

Cory saw the fallen ramp, and quickly aimed for it. The sirens faded as he fell into laser focus, gunning it and speeding toward the ramp. He hit the side of the ramp and fell off the bike, into the trailer. Cory quickly shut the doors and fell asleep in the back of the car.

Cory was awoken by the sound of crates being moved. He got up and out of the truck, seeing the shores of California. He felt dizzy, he was in California. Cory quickly jumped from the truck and breathed in the Californian air, feeling sick. He vomited onto the ground. Thick, chunky liquid fell onto the ground, colored reddish brownish. 

Cory quickly got up and walked out of the shipping yard, oh yeah he was in a shipping yard. He walked toward a nearby city and walked, the California air making him depressed. As he walked, he saw a golden glow from up ahead. Cory ran through the crowds toward the glow, and followed it all over town. Eventually he caught up with it, and gasped.

Standing there was none other than Sky from skydoesminecraft, holding a budder sword. Next to him was Captainsparklez, who preferred being called Tyrone by friends. They watched as Cory ran up, screeching excitedly as he stared at the budder sword held by Sky.

“You guys are my heroes!” Cory jumped up and down, shaking.

“Hey! You ruined our lives! You’re the one who deleted the internet and destroyed our YouTube career!” Sky yelled, anger flowing through his veins.

“I need your help, guys. I need to get to Japan,” Cory said, ignoring what Sky had just said.

Tyrone looked up, having an idea, “Dr. Eggman has a lab near the edge of town, maybe we can take one of his ships to get to Japan.”

Cory stared at Tyrone, excited again, “We NEED to do that!”

“Now wait just one darned second,” Sky said, holding his budder sword up, “This is the guy who ruined our lives. How did you even find me?”

“I know this guy named Chris who watches your videos and he looked you guys up.”

“But the internet is gone.”

“He never had the internet to begin with, he used this thing called a phone book.”

Sky nodded, sighing at Cory’s stupidity. Even a minecraft YouTuber like himself saw that Cory was the dumbest person on Earth, and that’s coming from a minecraft YouTuber. Cory looked at Sky expectantly, waiting for his answer. Sky sighed then agreed to go.

Tyrone and Sky made a plan to get into the building, but Cory didn’t listen to it. He walked right into the lab when they got there, despite Tyrone and Sky’s protests. Cory then walked straight into a trap, and was captured by Eggman’s robots. They also got Tyrone and Sky as they tried to escape.

They were locked into a cage above a pot of boiling acid. Doomed. 

“Good job, Cory. First you ruin our lives and now we’re dead,” Sky said, swinging his budder sword around. The robots didn’t see swords as real weapons. 

“S-sorry mister…” Cory sobbed and fell to the floor of the cage, hot streams of tears flowing down his face. He had betrayed his heroes, this was the worst day of his life. Cory began weeping harder and harder until a blue blur flew across the room. Cory looked up at the blur, amazed.

“Sonic?!” Cory shouted as the cage fell onto solid ground and broke apart. The blue blur slowed down, revealing it as none other than Xerath, again. Cory looked at her disappointed and began crying again. He had wanted Sonic.

Xerath disappeared and Tyrone and Sky searched for a ship, leaving Cory behind. Eventually they found it: the egghawk. The YouTubers jumped in and grabbed Cory. They flew out of the laboratories and into the setting sun, heading towards the only beacon of life on this miserable Earth: Japan.


	11. The Fedora Part III

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cory must fight Slenderman for the mythical fedora

“Oceans go on forever like the endless void that is hell…”

Cory muttered as they flew across the ocean. The egghawk was incredibly slow, about 50 miles per hour, and they had been flying for days. It didn’t help that the cockpit was small and only meant for one person. Fortunately, it was meant for Eggman, who was very fat. Unfortunately, Cory was almost as fat as Eggman.

After 5 days, they reached an island. Cory got excited, believing they were in Japan. Sky got out, saying some word in another language. Tourists were everywhere. They had taken over these islands. Cory cried as he saw the cheap souvenirs and shirts being sold overpriced. They were in Hawaii. 

Cory hid in the egghawk as Sky and Tyrone walked through the islands. Cory felt useless without his sword. He could picture it in his head, the cold metal blade, perfectly smooth. The silver tint it had as it reflected the sun. He pictured the hilt, covered in cloth wrappings. The black cloth felt like heaven against his hands, as if it wrapped itself around him, rather than the other way around. The light that shone from the blade gave him a feeling of warmth he had never felt before. The blade was perfect, no other words could describe it. 

Eventually, Sky and Tyrone came back to the egghawk, and they began the 6 day journey to Japan. Water covered a lot of the area they had gone, it was almost as if over half the earth was covered in water. Eventually, Cory began to feel as if water was everything he had ever seen.

The entire world was water. Cory felt that land didn’t exist. If land didn’t exist, what was the purpose? No one could live in the water. Swimming forever was impossible. He needed to end it all.

Cory jumped onto the side of the egghawk and jumped, only to be pulled back in by Sky. He couldn’t even escape this hell on Earth. Then he saw it: a landmass he could only describe as magnificent. The land was a dusty color, as if something had destroyed the entire country. Cory jumped out and grabbed a handful of the soil, it was chalky and fell through his fingers easily. 

“If I could find a souvenir, just to prove the world was here…” Cory said, looking to the sky expectantly.

“So what exactly are we looking for here?” Sky asked, pulling out his budder sword.

“The fedora.”

“The fedora?”

“The fedora.”

Cory began walking in a random direction, Sky and Tyrone reluctantly following. The ruins of a city lying on the ground untouched. What had happened here? The ground sunk as they walked, their feet becoming engulfed in the chalky dust. 

Hearing a large bang, they ran toward it, finding a small cave. A silhouette went into it as they ran towards it. They reluctantly entered the cave, finding most of it had collapsed before. It appeared to be a mineshaft from before.

“This is just like minecraft!” Cory shouted, running down the shaft. The others nodded in agreeance.

They came across a small bunker looking base, with a skeleton on the bed. Nothing could live long within this wasteland. Nearby, Cory found a journal. He hoped it brought answers with it.

October 9, 1965: A bag of balloons was released into the air by Japanese citizens 5 months ago, causing the United States to detect what they thought was a missile. As a response, a new experimental weapon was tested on Japan, which completely wiped out the entire nation, turning it to dust. Luckily, I was below the ground in a mine, unharmed. But I have no food, I will starve. Japan is gone. The greatest country on Earth has been destroyed. The things forgotten by time are tragic, and nothing will bring them back after they are forgotten.

Cory stared at the journal, not understanding what it was saying. He moved on and continued through the mine, Sky and Tyrone discussing minecraft behind him. The mines shook as what sounded like a helicopter passed them by. 

“They are here..” Cory said, thinking about the gang.

“Who are here?” Sky asked.

“The creepypasta gang…”

“I once reviewed a creepypasta mod in minecraft!”

Cory ignored him, moving toward the exit of the cave at an incredibly fast speed, or a light jog for most people. They were blinded by the light as they came out, looking out at the valley before them. The entire valley was as green as could be, waterfalls flowing down into a freefall. Trees of every color covered the landscape, giving the entire valley a beautiful look. In the center of the valley was a large, old japanese style monastery. Cory and the gang approached it, looking at the entrance suspiciously.

They decided to enter. That was a bad idea. As they entered the building, samurai jumped out from every side, an entire army appearing. They had the faces of dead people. Their skin peeling away like paint. They seemed to be immortal, and Cory now knew why the guy in the cave had died. They all held up dark colored katanas.

Sky jumped at them with his budder sword, fighting bravely as Tyrone fought with a large feather duster he had brought along. Cory jumped back, unarmed and weak. Suddenly, Newt ran up, holding Cory’s katana.

“Here, man, you forgot this.”

“How did you find us?” 

“You have a gps chip in your head.”

Cory was in big trouble if the president knew he had been here. Cory turned as he grabbed the sword seeing the battle before him.

Tyrone fought bravely, but was ultimately overpowered by the samurai. They chopped his feather duster in half, causing him to drop it. Tyrone looked at them in horror as they inserted their swords into him, causing him to die. Sky didn’t do much better, he was beheaded due to his budder sword breaking.

Cory screamed and held up his sword, shining light across the entire valley. The samurai turned in awe as they saw the sword, and fell to their knees in humble servitude. This was the army of the chosen one, meant to protect the fedora from evil forces. The two samurai who had killed Sky and Tyrone stood up, and committed seppuku, having betrayed the chosen one. Soon, they’d be frozen in hell.

Sky and Tyrones bodies were placed next to each other in the river, and pushed away into the unknown. Cory and Newt entered the monastery, being led by the samurai’s general. They followed him into a large room with a single hole at the end of it. A hole meant to insert a katana into.

Cory cautiously walked to the hole and took his katana out, turning to the general. The general nodded, flakes of skin falling off his face as he moved. Cory thrusted the sword into the hole, the sound of metal echoing across the chamber. The wall around The sword disappeared, leaving only a small pedestal with a fedora on it. 

Approaching the pedestal with great care, Cory grabbed the fedora with both hands and lifted it to his head. The fabric meshed perfectly with his head, slowly lowering into place. The slick blackness of the had seemed to shine within the entire building. His long hair blew through the wind as the fedora fit itself on his head. The radiance of the fedora was too much for anyone mortal, anyone who wasn’t special. The strip of fabric around the hat shone in the sunlight slowly falling through the open roof of the building. Cory felt a new feeling he had never felt before: happiness.

It was short lived, though, as the ground began to shake and Jeff the killer fell down through the roof.

“Fool!,” he said, batting his crazy looking eyes, “you just allowed the creepypasta gang into your monastery, hahahah!”

The hat seemed to have let the shield that protected the monastery from outsiders dissipate, leaving them out in the open. Jeff took his knife out quickly, jumping at Cory with lighting speed. The fedora and Cory’s katana seemed to connect. Forming a bond between Cory, the hat, and the sword. A trinity.

Cory’s eyes glowed with passion, causing a wind to swirl around him, blowing his hair dramatically. Cory matched Jeff’s speed as he ran toward the pale man. Jeff blocked the attack, but was quickly overpowered by the might of Cory’s blade. Cory tore Jeff to pieces.

Newt stared in awe at Cory, but felt something within himself hoping to break out as well. The samurai general approached Newt, and held out his hand, touching it to Newt’s forehead. Newt felt an awakening, he began to float off the ground as the general blew away as dust. Newt glowed with silver light and began to fly higher toward the ceiling. He closed his eyes, and was engulfed by the light. He then fell to the ground, but not as a human. 

Newt looked down at himself, and knew he was no longer Newt. He was Silver the Hedgehog. As a child, Silver had been taken away by Dr. Robotnik and brought to Earth from his home planet of Eroch, where all the hedgehogs live. Silver was then forced to do tests for a shady organization and became Newt, the slightly off human. His memory was erased, and Silver was lost to time. Until now.

Cory and Silver nodded to each other, and moved onward to the next room, where the rake and eyeless Jack awaited them. Silver used his psychic powers to move the katanas around the room and slice Jack up. Cory charged at the rake and obliterated him in a single sweep of his cold steel katana.

The two headed outside, where they defeated the remaining creepypasta gang characters. As they finished the last one off, slenderman and a hooded figure swooped in. Silver and Cory were entangled in tentacles by the slenderman. The hooded figure removed his robes, revealing himself as Jake the killer: Cory’s OC creepypasta.

Cory screamed as he was once again taken to the dream world. He awoke in a dark world filled with floating pillars. 

“What do you want from me?!” Cory cried desperately.

“We need the fedora. You cannot thwart our plans.”

Slenderman dropped Cory’s sword to the ground as a bubble with the fedora appeared above them. Cory took a steady stance. Inside this dimension, the candle universe, Slenderman could be hurt.

Slenderman sent a barrage of tentacles at Cory, who in turn swung his katana, cutting most of them off. Cory jumped to the side and ran with his arms behind his back to gain more speed. He ran around the creature and jumped above him, slicing him in two. 

The man melted away, leaving Jake the killer behind. Jake, the master of illusions, had taken the form of slenderman. Cory turned to the left, then the right and saw Slenderman standing over him, tentacles ready. Cory ran from the man, his head aching with great pain. Slenderman pursued him as he jumped to another platform, running the superior way.

Cory slid as he turned, holding his katana at the ready, the two dueled on the platform, showing their skills as Slenderman used his tentacles and Cory used his katana. Suddenly, Slenderman put away his tentacles, and drew his katana, a blade of darkness. A steel made of the deepest, darkest black ever known. 

Cory charged the man, sweeping his sword across the man's chest, which was dodged and countered with a kick. Cory got up and swung his katana toward the legs, which was once again blocked. The battle lasted hours, days, even years to Cory. They fought forever, never upping the other. Eventually, Cory grabbed the fedora and entered his seppuku form, his eyes glowed as he charged at slenderman, swinging his sword diagonally toward the darkness katana. The two blades collided, evenly matched. Cory’s eyes shone, and Slenderman knew it was already over. The darkness blade crumbled under the pressure, and Cory’s katana moved quickly towards Slenderman, piercing his heart.

“P-please listen…” Slenderman said, dying, “your leader- he is n-not…”

Slenderman was cut off as Cory slashed him again, effectively ending him forever. Cory awoke in front of the monastery, surrounded by Slenderman’s blood. The entire world seemed to stay still as Cory grabbed the fedora, and once again put it on. The valley was once again at peace. Cory ran over to Silver, and helped him up.

“We did good today, man,” Silver said, looking around.

“Yes we did, but it’s not over yet, there's still so many questions we have!”

“Yeah man, like where did the samurai army go?”

“And who was that girl from my dreams…” Cory was cut off as the spirit of a blue girl flew down and landed in front of them. She was wearing a kimono and looked like a japanese queen. She smiled upon them.

“I am Saeko, the empress of Japan. For years, I have been trapped by a malevolent demon, but I am now free. I must warn you, though, that the demon is still free, though I cannot tell you who the demon is.” She floated closer, “you must listen. My real name, Xerath, is also the name of my people. Not the Japanese, but my original people. Long ago. The planet of Xerath was populated by the Xerath, a group of strong, advanced, blue people. These people were the strongest in the galaxy, until they were forced to move away from their home planet due to an attack by Dr. Robotnik. The doctor destroy Xerath, and many Xerath's were killed in the war. After, the remaining Xerath’s moved to earth, and now live in a spaceship that constantly orbits Earth. You humans call this “the moon.” This is all I can tell you now, please, look out for this demon, Cory.”

The blue lady disappeared, causing Cory and Silver to look at the sky with hope. They would find the leader of this creepypasta gang and they would track down the demon that imprisoned Saeko. The world depended on it.

Meanwhile, in Germany, Hitler was meeting with his three comrades, the bus driver, Kanye East, and the leader of the creepypasta gang. Hitler was now fully human, thanks to the work of Kanye East and Cory in hell. 

“We shall attack soon, and we will leave no survivors in DC!” Hitler said, laughing. The end was near.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the end of season 1: the beginning.  
> Season 2: the emeralds is next.


	12. Awakening

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cory discovers the first chaos emerald and decides to go on a quest to find the rest to finally stop Adolf hitler

Cory woke with a start, his head pounds with anxiety. He dreamt of the battle between him and the Creepypastas. Though he had won, he now knew how big of a threat the opposition was. Cory knew something big was going to happen today. Something monumental. Cory grabbed his fedora and his katana and bolted out the door, running towards the president's office, not even stopping for a drink as he went. 

The president was up and staring out the window, looking at the moon on this starless night. Soon he would turn around and face Cory. He turned around to face Cory. 

“it's over.” he simply said. 

Cory knew what he meant: the resource wars. As time went on, oil became rarer and rarer. Now Europe and the Middle East were warring over it. It had ended now. 

“who won, senpai?”

The president sighed and looked down, “Europe and the Middle East are decimated, but now are under one ruler: Adolf Hitler.”

Now everything made sense. Hitler had sent everything to attack him in order to wipe out the last resistance against him. Cory was the final obstacle in his way. 

Cory nodded gravely at the president and walked away. His inner voice had awoken. The fedora spoke to him with telepathy. It told him of his past, Cory was the final chain of a reincarnation. He was the last guardian of earth. 

Throughout his life, Cory knew he was special. Now he knew why. He was the direct descendant of both Abraham Lincoln and napoleon. He had the blood of both the Pharaohs and the Caesars. He now knew why he never had parents: the earth and the sun cause him to reform every 100 years. The old chef, his father, was only a false prophet.

Cory sat down and began to mumble in Japanese. He hadn't asked for this. This was not what he wanted. The fedora began to glow as he reached toward the wall. He quickly moved his arm away and the glowing stopped. Something was in that wall. He quickly slashed the wall with his katana, causing it to fall. Inside, there was a diamond shaped emerald that glowed with power. It was a chaos emerald. One of the seven that were used to form super sonic. Cory grabbed it and stared with awe at its majesty. It was amazing. 

Cory closed his eyes and looked into the emerald. It showed him visions: Hitler was soon going to take on his true form. Soon he would disguise himself as an alien and trick shadow the hedgehog to kill the president. He had to warn shadow. But first, he had to find shadow. 

Cory knew now what he must do: form a diverse, progressive team of useless idiots to take down the aliens and save shadow from Hitler. 

It was now time for war. And Cory knew it would be the greatest battle in history.


	13. Loss

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cory meets Espio and Michael jackson

The wind blew Cory's long auburn hair as he walked through the woods outside Washington DC. The distant sounds of chirping caused him to feel at ease, the stars shooting across the sky like a million angels flying toward the ground. A new age had begun. 

Cory's new objective was to find espio the chameleon, a trained ninja and a great adversary that would be vital to their success. He knew that the chaos emeralds would be needed to defeat Hitler, he just didn't know where to find them. 

Espio was last seen in the forest outside of Washington DC, after he ran away due to the agony of vector the crocodile's death. Ever since he had been living as a recluse. 

Cory looked toward the center of the forest, thinking about Japan. No, Cory thought, Japan doesn't exist. He knew from personal experience. He pushed on. Fueled by his emptiness. 

Suddenly, a loud bang was heard behind him, and a shotgun shell flew past his face. 

“Death to the evil one, prepare to die eggman”

Cory dove behind a tree, dodging Espios bullets as the hit around him. As he fell, the chaos emerald flew out of his pocket and fell to the ground. He knew what he had to do. Cory jumped into the open and held up the stone, the entire area was filled with bright light. Espio dropped his gun and stared. 

“ah, so it's you. I would've rather seen death.” espio said, picking up his gun and resting it on his shoulder. Cory put down the chaos emerald and walked cautiously toward espio. 

“I need you to help me stop Hitler.” Cory said simply. 

“why would I help you with that, Hitler did nothing wrong.” Espio said edgily. 

Cory nodded sadly, “but the president wanted him dead.”

“Who cares what anyone wants?”

Cory thought it over, Espio sighed, “I'll help you if you can find Michael Jackson, the white one.”

Cory nodded, “the best one.”

Espio nodded and handed Cory a map. “this leads to Jackson's temple, now go.”

Cory went right away. It led him to an alleyway in the middle of Detroit, he used the chaos emerald to teleport to the exact location. As he walked down the alleyway, he felt shivers down his spine, there was something here, something spooky. All of a sudden, a skeleton popped out and attacked Cory!!!!

Cory got hit in the arm by the Skeleton, instantly marking him as a Skeleton virus carrier. Cory fell down to his knees, slowly becoming more and more skeletal, his arm became bones and it slowly went up toward his shoulder. 

Suddenly, a chaos emerald fell into Cory's lap, instantly transforming him, his arm healed automatically and his skin turned to white. Cory became ecstatic, he could now attend supremacy rallies without feeling awkward. The person who dropped the emerald did sick dance moves to kill both of the skeletons, instantly disintegrating them.

He looked up and saw that his savior was Michael Jackson, the legend. Michael used his magic dance moves to kill the last Skeleton. It was instantly destroyed. 

Cory looked and saw mj, holding out his hand to help him get up. 

“m-michael Jackson?!?” Cory exclaimed. 

“yes, it is I.”

“I need your help to get a chameleon to help me. We need to stop Hitler.”

“but why would you want to stop Hitler? “

Cory thought it over. “it doesn't matter, it's my destiny. Will you help me?”

Michael Jackson thought it over and nodded eventually, grabbing his fedora. Cory sighed as he grabbed both chaos emeralds and teleported them both back to espios forest. 

Espio was hiding in the bushes, shooting at deer. They teleported behind him,causing him to shoot a tree, igniting the woods. 

“we gotta get out!” Michael shouted as he ran. 

“no! Charmy the bee is in there!” Espio shouted, Cory pulled him along and out of the woods. Espio cried for the first time in years. 

As they escaped, the woods were completely destroyed... as was espios heart. This was the end of regular espio. Now he was a soulless heartless edge lord. 

They walked through the charred woods later, looking for signs of Charmy. 

They found him. 

He was a pile of bones on the ground, completely black with soot. His face was the only thing that remained, and it formed a face of true horror. Espio grabbed it, but it instantly dissolved, destroying his last friend left forever. 

Espio grunted and turned away, “he deserved it, I hated his voice.”

Cory and Michael looked at him in shock. Espio walked away slowly, a scowl on his face, the rest of the group followed. 

And thus began the descent of Espios hopes and dreams. He was a 20 something year old man with no friends and no wife. His life could now be described in a single word: loss.


	14. Depression

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cory meets up with Newt and forces him to join his team.

Now that they had three people and two chaos emeralds, Cory was feeling more confident in his mission. But they had another issue: food and money. 

They had been using the money from a wallet they stole before, but now they had run out and were penniless. 

They entered the grocery store, loaded with fake coupons and food stamps. They were getting the bare essentials to survive. 

They picked up a few liters of soda, a bunch of chips, and lots of candy. As they entered the checkout line, Cory gasped dramatically. Behind the desk was none other than newt, Cory's longtime friend and the secret identity of silver. Last time Cory saw him was in Japan when they defeated the Creepypasta army. Now he looked clean and more professional. Though he looked less like a silver hedgehog. 

“newt, hey its me! Remember?” Cory said, it had only been two months. 

newt looked up, a sad expression on his face, “hello, welcome to [grocery store name]”

Cory stared wide eyed at newt, “newt, what happened to you??”

Newt shrugged and began checking them out. Nobody spoke for the rest of the transaction. After it was finished, cory and the gang left, only to stop at the doorway. 

“we need to get newt on our team guys.” Cory said. 

“that idiot, no way.” espio replied. 

“he's secretly silver the hedgehog.”

“that idiot, no way.”

“we are going to follow him after work and see what changed.”

Espio sighed and nodded while Michael sat silently. It was mutually decided. 

They waited outside the door for three hours before newt walked out, holding keys. He walked to the left and toward the side of the building. The gang followed him there. Along the building was a parking lot, it had cars in it.  
Newt got into a car and sat there, staring at the city from afar. He took out a bottle of water and began drinking it, bringing it to his mouth and pouring the liquid down his throat. The gang snuck up behind his car and listened in.  
Newt sighed audibly as he looked at the moon, thinking of something Cory didn't know. He started his car and began to drive away, but Cory and the gang chased after him using the chaos emeralds to move faster while cloaking themselves from newts view for plot convenience. 

“radioactive” began to play on the radio as they rode through the city, lights shining all around them underneath the moon. The city shone with a glow of the modern age, drowning out all darkness, yes still holding crime. Not even a city without darkness could drown out the darkness of the human race. 

Newt drove toward the outskirts of town, past many abandoned buildings as he approached a large apartment building. This is where he parked. The gang hid in the bushes as the watched newt get out of his car. Soon after, he entered the building and went to a room. 

“since when does newt live alone?” Cory whispered. 

“he doesn't look mentally capable of living alone.” espio replied. 

They teleported into his room, looking at the depressing scene of a single bed apartment with a small bathroom and a mini fridge.  
Newt sat, staring at the wall, hunched over with his water. He slowly took a sip, looking absolutely miserable. 

“20 bucks says he kills himself,” espio whispered. 

“I need to do something about this,” Cory said. 

He dropped the emerald and walked toward newt. Newt didn't even react. 

“what's going on newt?”

Newt stared blankly at the wall, not even acknowledging Cory. 

Cory grabbed the chaos emeralds and began to read his thoughts which I guess it can do now. 

Newt was alone in this world, his past as silver soon flooded into his mind after the battle in Japan, this caused his transformation to fail, turning him back into newt. After the government became interested in silver’s psychic powers, he was forced into hiding as newt, but he also erased all of his mind and destroyed his training. 

After remembering, newt realized that all he ever did was nothing compared to the feats silver had performed. Newt was a lonely useless sack of organs and liquids. 

“newt, don't worry you can come with us,” Cory said, not understanding any of what he just saw. 

Newt shook his head, “I'm not giving up all this.”

“too bad.”

Cory then grabbed newt and pulled him out, forcing him to come with them. After destroying his car and canceling his rent, newts life was effectively destroyed. This forced him to join the gang. 

The silver inside newt kept him going, confused about his identity, and discouraged by the many failed attempts to get a girlfriend, he went on sad and alone, even as he joined the gang, he wasn't part of the group. He was alone, as he always was and always would be.


	15. The Third Emerald

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The squad breaks into Dr. Eggman's base in order to retrieve the third emerald.

“Well here we are again,” Cory said, facing the large building that was Eggmans laboratory. Last time they were here, they teamed up with minecraft youtubers to hijack a ship or something like that. The memories of the two now dead YouTubers haunted Cory, but not enough to make him feel anything. 

A small lead led the gang to this area, someone had told them the lab ran on chaos power, that someone was none other than Chris, that one guy with the Sonic medallion. But a small complication prevented him from joining them on their raid. 

Michael stared up at the building, looking at the height, which was tall. It was really tall, it went up quite a ways into the sky. It's hard to describe how tall it was but it wasn't as high as a skyscraper and it was taller than an average school. 

Eggman robots with hammers guarded the doors and prevented trespassers from entering the building. There were also laser turrets and Mines scattered across the field in front of it. Getting past them would be tough. 

Lucky for them, the chaos emerald could teleport them inside. The description was unnecessary. 

As the teleported inside, they realized they were surrounded by robots. Cory took out his katana. The group was ready to fight. 

“look at all those Eggman’s robots.” Michael said, screaming over the noise of the factory. 

Espio used his ninja skills to kill a few robots, moving stealthily around them. He threw nunchucks at a few of the robots, instantly destruction them. Meanwhile, Michael used his sweet dance moves to kill the robots. As he swung his arms groovily, magic powder shot out, causing the robots to explode. 

Cory jumped up and slashed at the robots, cutting them in two. Each robot was destroyed with precision and pristine. Newt sat there uselessly, not able to fight without the power of silver. 

Suddenly, the robots stopped and began shaking. Espio stood back in horror as they watched the robots break into pieces as the formed into one giant robot. It was large and red, with Claws on its hands. It moved slowly, it's arms blocking its only weak point. It was the death egg robot! 

Cory screamed as he put on his hat, entering his seppuku form. His eyes glowed yellow with rage as his katana became bright white. He charged at the robot, bringing his blade up as he jumped and sliced downward, but he was flung back by the spikes on its hands. This fight would not be easy. 

Espio threw shurikens at the robot, but they could not pierce its armor. He used his nunchucks to hit at its arms, but it was no use, the robot seemed invincible. Even Michael's magic dance moves couldn't harm the being. 

“newt, you gotta go silver!” Cory shouted over the clangs of the battle. 

“I can't. I don't have the power!” newt shouted, sitting there uselessly. 

Cory cried out with rage as he activated seppuku form again, his sword grew to the size of a medium sized bus. He had entered seppuku due form. His eyes glowed with rage and malice as the world around him became a blur. All he could see was his target: the robot. 

He jumped off the ground onto the robot, slashing at all of its parts, only scratching the paint off of it. Even seppuku due wasn't enough to destroy the death egg robot. 

Static played over the intercom, “hahaha ha i knew you ship sealers would return, now it's time to kill you once and for all. Not even the sharpest blade can beat my death egg robot mark twenty!” Eggman shouted over the intercom. 

“what about mental powers? Not that we have any except for mine” espio shouted at Eggman. 

“u-uh no those won't uh work.” 

“silver you moron, get out of that depressing, worthless shell.” espio shouted at newt. 

Newt sighed, then he remembered something. He used to work at pizza hut when he was silver, he used to sigh all the time. Him sighing awoke something inside him. He closed his eyes as he transformed into silver, the power of psychokinesis flowed through his nerves. He closed his eyes and looked into the robot, seeing every feature of it in plain view. He was able to rearrange the wires inside of the robot to cause it to malfunction. 

The robot punched itself many times before falling over into a pile of parts. Silver opened his eyes, turning back into newt instantly. He had done it. His head ached with a million volcanos as he became newt again. 

“silver, why’d you turn back into newt? You didn't do enough.” Cory said. 

Everyone else congratulated newt except Cory and espio, so it was just Michael. Even though newt was still miserable, he felt a little bit of hope inside as he stared into the facility. 

“guys stop wasting time, I need to get that chaos emerald.” Cory said. 

The rest of the gang followed reluctantly. They followed Cory into the main reactor chamber, seeing the chaos emerald inside a pedestal in the center. Looking down, they could see the bridges that went across the room were above a large pit that went down many miles. Cory began walking across the bridge toward the emerald, suddenly Eggman popped out of nowhere with his hovercraft, aiming a gun at Cory. 

“end of the line, trespasser.” he said, hand on the trigger. 

“jokes on you, Eggman. I can't die.” Cory yelled as Eggman shot him in the head. Cory's head blew into a million pieces graphically, it left even espio shocked. But just at that moment, the chaos emerald flew to Cory and reversed time, taking him back 7 seconds. 

“jokes on you, Eggman. I can't die.” Cory said as he jumped onto Eggman’s ship and stabbed it with his Katana. The ship along with Cory fell into the abyss. Once again the chaos emerald activated and brought them back 7 seconds. 

“jokes on you Eggman. I can't die.” Cory said as he dodged the bullet and threw his Katana at the ship. It exploded along with the entire building. Killing them all. The chaos emerald activated again, taking them back seven seconds. 

“jokes on you Eggman. I can't die.” Cory said as he grabbed the chaos emerald and ran back to his friends, then teleported away.

“this isn't the end!” Eggman shouted, unheard. 

The group teleported back to Chris’s house, where they greeted Chris with a warm welcome, except for espio and newt. 

Chris had been working on his medallion, fixing all the kinks it had and refining its powers. But that isn't what he stayed behind for. He had grown seven hundred pounds since their last adventure.

Chris greeted them back and put on his medallion. 

“Hey guys, welcome back.” he said as he grabbed a beer. He was now an alcoholic. 

Espio left, believing alcohol to be the bane of Jesus and also because it smelled horrible in that apartment. Chris didn't mind the smell, it was his own smell and he didn't even notice it anymore. 

“hey Chris, what's going on?” Michael said, not having nostrils to smell. 

“nothing stop talking so much micycle.” Chris replied, using Michael's lesser known first name. 

“what's our next target, mister?” Cory said to Chris. 

“Nevada. Area 51 is the place. They have a chaos emerald there, but this one provides a shield and holds the power to null all other chaos emerald effects. Be warned. You cannot teleport, change your appearance, or distort time within its boundries.” Chris replied. 

“how will we ever get in, then?”

“with the help of Lara Croft. The adventurer and my future girlfriend.”

Cory nodded, believing that it may happen someday. They decided to meet Lara in Nevada, where she was currently being held in prison for trying to break into area 51.


	16. Area 51

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The squad breaks into area 51 in order to find another chaos emerald.

Getting to Nevada was a breeze, getting into the prison was harder. The prison sat within boundaries covered in barbed wire. Past that, guard dogs roamed, watching every move. Even further, laser security and cameras watched the doors. 

Luckily they had espio, a natural expert at stealth. Even without the second chaos emerald, which changes appearance, he could slip by anything unnoticed. Unfortunately Cory was the overweight and loud. They were caught in minutes. Thrown into a single cell, everyone glared at Cory except Michael because he was pure of heart. 

Espio caught sight of Lara, who was in a cell across the room, passed out. They searched the room for a way to get out, but were unable to find one. They decided to wait it out. 

Some time later, espio looked out after hearing a Commotion. Across the way, a guard had entered paradise cell, but it looked like Lara had escaped and let the other prisoners out, who beat the guards to death. 

“now is the time.” espio said, moving over to a Crack in the wall and pulling the panel out, revealing a passageway, “let's go, losers.”

Cory gasped with excitement and pushed espio out of the way, moving into the hole. Espio grunted and followed him, the others close by. 

Meanwhile, an airship approached area 51, holding none other than the bus driver. He now was a zeppelin driver, but bus driver is still his name. 

“sir, I'm in position.”

“good,” Hitler said over the intercom, “now wait.”

The bus driver soluted, though Hitler couldn't see him. He put the zeppelin in hover mode and sat back, reading his book about bus’s. 

Back in the prison, the gang made it out of the tunnels and found themselves in a courtyard filled with crates which in turn were filled with something they didn't know because they weren't open. 

They saw lara get into a truck and they stealthily snuck over to the truck, only getting caught once. They killed the guard who caught them. They jumped in after Lara, only narrowly avoiding her gunfire. 

“don't worry. We are after the chaos emerald too.” Cory said, too loud. 

“shh, you mean the infada stone?” she replied in her British accent. 

“no. I'm looking for the chaos emerald. It's in area 51.”

Lara ignored him. 

Soon the truck began to move. It went straight into area 51. Cory looked through all the crates, but there was only bags of organs. Nothing useful here. 

Cory and the gang got out in a storage area, avoiding the drivers of the truck. 

“here we are, the final frontier.” Cory said, putting his arms to the sides. 

“what does that even mean?” espio said. 

Cory shrugged and began walking forward, only to be stopped by Lara, who pointed to lasers on the ground. Shaking her head, she jumped straight over them and did a roll, landing upright. The rest of the gang were spellbound and amazed, except for espio, who could easily do that. He proved this by perfectly mimicking the jump, but without the roll, and landed in a crouch. 

Espio glared at Lara. A rivalry had begun. 

The rest of the gang got over the jump, except for Cory, who could hardly get off the ground. 

“don't worry, I got this.” Cory said, taking out a chaos emerald and putting it in front of the laser. Everyone protested as the laser was broken into a million others and reflected across the room. One beam hit newt, and it was all over. The alarms rang and guards began advancing, guns at the ready. 

Cory took out his Katana as espio and Micheal took ready positions. Newt sat there uselessly. Lara unholstered her pistols and pointed them at the guards. 

Espio jumped up onto the ceiling and began blending in with the panels. As he went across, he threw shurikens at the guards below, piercing their armor and causing them to lose control, some even began openly firing at their fellow guards. 

Lara jumped over a guard, shooting at him as she went above him, instantly killing him. She dodged a few bullets and began firing rapidly at the guards, killing many of them. 

Michael disco danced around them, turning them into piles of dust. He moonwalked backwards and threw his Fedora at the guards remaining, killing many of them. Only one remained. Cory killed him with his Katana. 

“come on, we need to move.” espio shouted, running away. 

“since when is he in charge?” Cory did said as the rest followed espio. He reluctantly followed suit. 

They made their way through the base, killing guards as they went along. Eventually they came across a large room with three doors. Suddenly, a large man with two machine guns jumped down and landed before them. 

“stop right there, I'm that one guy from wolfenstein 3d and I'm gunna kill you.” he said. 

“let's do this, guys.” Michael said.   
“no. I'm going to kill him to prove my worth.” Cory said, taking out his Katana and putting on his Fedora. He entered his seppuku form, running along and avoiding the machine gun fire. Cory entered seppuku due, becoming even more powerful. He slashed at the man, cutting off both of his hands in the process. 

Cory entered seppuku tre, a purple aura surrounding him. He began slashing at the man as he screamed in agony. The rest of the gang watched in horror as Cory massacred the man. After what felt like hours, Cory stabbed the man's heart, he let out one last cry as he died. The room around him covered in blood and… body parts. 

“let's go.” Cory said. The rest followed him, still in total shock. What had Cory become? 

They discovered a large chamber that was very dark, so dark they couldn't see a thing. They felt around with their hands, trying to find a light switch. Espio could see in the dark, so he had no problem getting through. 

Eventually they all made it to a side room where they found a switch. Flipping it, they were spellbound by the sight of aliens on lab tables, some of them were obviously experimented on and cut open. Everyone was shocked except for espio, who already knew of aliens existence.   
As they searched the area, they discovered yet another strange sighting: orca whales in a large tank. Nobody knew what to think of it, even espio was somewhat confused by it. But they decided to stop caring. 

Eventually they located a spacecraft, probably one that crashed landed with the aliens. They made their way inside only to find more guards. 

“heh, no problem.” espio muttered as he began killing the guards. Lara followed suit, using gymnast moves to avoid the gunfire. They battled it out, trying to one up each other. Eventually all the guards were gone. 

Cory climbed up stairs to find the fourth chaos emerald: null. He grabbed it as Michael began messing with the ship controls. Eventually he got it working and they flew the ship out of there, heading back toward DC. Suddenly, though, the airship appeared and caught them in a tractor beam. Troopers swung out of the ship, carrying saws that they used to cut through the spacecraft. The cockpit soon became flooded with troopers, who each carried a light blade. Cory took out his katana, taking three troops at once as he dodged and slashed at them. One of them did an overhead swipe, which Cory dodged, but he fell back into another one of the troops, who slashed cory's arm, blood soon soaked the clothes covering his arm, but Cory fought back. Using his katana, he did a broad swing and caught all three in the same hit, crumbling them down to the floor. 

Michael and newt fought with the controls, trying to get the ship away from the airship while espio and Lara shot and sliced at the troops respectively. It looked like they were going to win. 

Unfortunately, that was short lived as the ceiling collapsed and a giant mech holding the bus driver fell in. 

“you again!” Cory shouted, reminded of his horrible time in Iowa. 

“yes, it's me you cockroach. You just won't die will you?! But now, you'll be powerless.” as he said this, he activated another tractor beam, this one sucking the fourth emerald into a socket in the mech's chest, “this mech amplifies the power of the emerald, making it not only null the power of the emeralds, but also the abilities of all of you.”

Espio instantly felt less athletic, while Michael lost his swag. Cory was the worst, as he lost his appearance change. Newt stayed the same. 

Bus driver laughed as he watched his enemies become powerless. Cory ran up with his sword, slashing, but it was no use. He put on his Fedora, and tried to enter seppuku form, but it was to no avail. He couldn't even enter his due or tre forms without the appearance change. 

Espio looked over at Lara, “maybe instead of competing, we should work together.” 

Lara nodded as she got in a ready position. Espio followed suit. They charged the robot, guns and shurikens at the ready. Lara gave espio a boost in leaping up, to which he smashed the glass on the mech’s helmet. Lara, meanwhile, shot at the wires that could be seen within the joints of the robot, instantly destroying the legs. 

The bus driver became angry and initialized his missile attacks, shooting missiles out of his back at the two. Espio narrowly dodged them, causing them to hit the robot's arm instead, breaking it off. Lara was less lucky as she was hit with a missile. 

“arrrg! You bothersome fools! You'll see me again someday.” the bus driver said as he detached the legs from the mech and flew back to his airship, flying away with the emerald. 

Without the tractor beam, the ship began falling toward the ground, crashing and burning as it crash landed. Everyone coughed as the dust settled. 

“why don't I get the spotlight anymore!?!” Cory shouted as he came to. 

Espio got up and looked around, seeing Lara laying on the ground looking very pale. 

“Lara…”  
“e-espio”  
“hang in there Lara.”  
“espio… I want to live in a world without nazi…”  
“Lara, there is no world without nazis, it's only a fantasy.”  
“i know… but I want to believe.”  
“lara”  
Lara sighed as she closed her eyes forever.   
“Lara?” espio said shaking her, everyone stared at him with varying emotions.   
Espio picked up Lara and screamed.   
“no! This can't be happening. There's no reason for me to go on. Wha-.. What am I fighting fooooor?!?”


	17. Trials of Newt

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Newt must travel to his home dimension in order to find his true self.

Newt sighed as he walked down a trail behind the gang, not knowing where they were going both metaphorically and literally. The sky shown bright blue without a cloud in sight, the trees a tint of gold as the season turned to fall. 

The scene would have been beautiful, of it wasn't for the looming depression that haunted newt. He was lonely, afraid, and betrayed, both by his friends and himself. Newt knew he couldn't go on like this much longer. He would need to kill himself soon if things didn't change. 

As they walked, a vortex appeared in the sky and newt was taken away by it suddenly. The others went on, either not knowing or not caring. 

The world spun around newt as the wormhole took him to another time. The future became the past and time became a wavelength. The illusion of reality was breifly revealed to newt, he was awestruck. 

He landed in the ruins of a city. The buildings either collapsed or broken beyond repair. The sky was filled with smoke and rubble rained down every now and then. Dystopia reigned. 

“who the heck are you?” a voice said from behind newt, he quickly turned around to face a pink cat. It was blaze the cat. Memories flooded back into newts mind as he saw her. 

“blaze…”

“don't have a heart attack you loser. Where's silver, my wormholes never fail.”

Newt sighed and pointed to himself, “silver is dead. He transformed himself into me in order to hide from the feds.”

“ah, gross.”

Newt sighed and looked at the horizon. 

“silver used to sigh like that, I think silver is inside of you after all. You'll just need training.” blaze said, grabbing a whip. 

Newt gulped as music began to play as the scene shifted. 

I need a hero

Newt climbed up and down stairs as blaze timed him, shaking her head in disapointment. 

I'm holding out for a hero til the end of the night

Newt stood at the edge of a building, blaze encouraging him to jump across to another building. 

He's gotta be strong and he's gotta be fast

Newt held his hand out toward a can, attempting to move it with his mind 

And he's gotta be something something 

Newt stood at the edge of the building, jumping to the other building with his eyes closed. He screamed as he scraped his knee. 

I need a hero 

Newt closed his eyes and gritted his teeth, tipping the cam over. 

I'm holding out for a hero til the end of the night

Newt fell to the ground, exhausted from all the training. The music stopped. 

“you've made no progress at all.” blaze said, “what happened last time you turned into silver?”

“the first time it happened, a Munk awoke him within me. The second I was concentrating really hard.”

“what happened to kill the transformation?”

“I lost confidence that I was silver,” newt said, “maybe I need you to kiss me in order to transform!”

Blaze slapped him, “I thought you were gay!”

“no, there's no gay people in this world.”

“oh right, youre from the other dimension.”

Newt stood up and stared at blaze. 

“ugh whatever but if it doesn't work I'm giving up on you.”

Newt began moving closer, blaze kept herself from moving away, looking as if she were going to throw up. Newt embraced her awkwardly as he moved closer. 

Suddenly he turned into silver, blaze instantly shoved him away in disgust. She was free from the disgusting loser. 

“ugh well I guess you're back.” she said. 

“yeah, but for how long?” blaze shrugged, “anyway, why did you call me here?”

“I needed to tell you that Hitler Eggman has reawoken.” just the name brought back memories from his past. Silver had fought Hitler Eggman in the past when he was turning all the juice in the world to gas. Now the madman was back. 

“we need to fight him.”

“yeah about that, I'm too frail and weak due to budget cuts to fight him so you'll have to do it alone.” she said, waving her hand around. 

Silver sighed. He knew he had to do this alone. He climbed mount Eggman and broke into the capitol, killing everything in sight. He used his telekinesis to rearrange their organs and kill them. He was a being of pure energy. Eventually he got to Hitler Eggman, who started laughing as he walked in. 

“heh, nothing personal kid.” he laughed as he pulled out the longest katana known to man. He turned around and revealed his evil face. He teleported behind silver and kicked him in the back of the head. Silver instantly fell down. Silver did a spin kick and knocked over the madman, bringing them both to the floor. They slapped at each other, trying to bruise the others face. 

“snooping as usual I see?” Hitler Eggman said as he pointed to the door. 

“nah, I'm just watching this pathetic excuse for a fight.” blaze said from the doorway. 

Silver got up using his telekinetic powers and began punching the absolute madman in the face, breaking his glasses. Looking at his face, he saw the man was blind. 

“I cannot fight the blind.” silver said, bowing his head. 

Blaze began to boo as Hitler Eggman got up and began beating silver to a pulp. Silver stood there and took it. Blaze laughed at this. 

He (hilter Eggman) went in for the final blow but was burned to death by blaze in an instant. 

“sick burn, blaze” silver said. 

“shut up you illiterate sad excuse for a life form who is a disgrace to even his mother if he even had a mother.” blaze said, walking away. 

Silver sighed and followed her. It was then that she turned around glaring at him and sent him back to the rest of the gang. 

“woah is that silver?” Michael said innocently. 

Espio groaned as silver approached the group. 

“where have you been?” Cory asked. 

“I met someone.”

“was it your girlfriend?”espio teased. 

“n-no”

“oh right, you don't have the capabilities to attain a girlfriend, even if you liked girls.”

“b- but I don't see you with a girlfriend!”

“I'm sure we'll run into a girl soon enough who will spawn a dramatic fight between me and another guy who joins our group later.” espio said, looking to the sky. 

No one could argue with that.


	18. Zero

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Espio's eternal rival, Zero, shows up

The gang continued moving toward Chicago, their chaos emeralds still drained of energy because of the fourth chaos emerald. None of them could teleport or change their appearance because of this. They were stuck doing it the old fashioned way. 

Chicago is said to be the location of the fifth chaos emerald. This is why they were heading to Chicago, in order to get the fifth chaos emerald they heard was in Chicago. 

Next to nothing could stop them, until a vortex opened from the sky and blaze popped out of it. Everyone was shocked except espio, who merely grunted and kept moving. 

“blaze? Why are you here?” silver said as he stepped forward. 

Blaze shook her head and silver moved back, “I was told an evil spirit has awakened in this world by the light God in my dimension. Apparently someone freed him from the depths of hell.”

Corys eyes went wide as he remembered his trip to hell with Kanye east. The person who freed him must have gone into hell after Cory. 

Blaze grunted and stared at them, “it doesn't matter who did it, we’ll figure that out later.” 

“who is this ‘we.’ Right now we already have enough morons to run the entire fashion industry,” espio said, glaring. 

“well then.” blaze responded crossing her arms. 

“do you have any special skills?” Cory asked, tipping his Fedora. 

“I can conjure fire and-”

“you're in”

Espio rolled his eyes at Cory, now even more incompetence could stupidity would follow him around. But it wasn't like he had anyone else to be with. 

The gang continued onward into Chicago. They were amazed by the size of the city, except for espio who doesn't get surprised, as you probably already know. 

Cory walked up to someone, asking for directions, “locale uh museumoso.. Wherea?”

“uh what?” the guy said, not knowing Spanish. 

“where's the museum?” espio cut in. 

“oh, I don't know, I'm looking for that as well. But Im not going with the likes of you.” the man said, gesturing to most of them. 

“understandable.” espio cut in. 

They parted ways and began asking random people, no one knew where the museum was. Did the museum even exist? 

Eventually, they went up the sears tower and looked for it. Using his excellent vision, espio was able to spot it. 

“great, let's go,” blaze said. 

“hmmph, don't act like you're in charge, princess.” espio responded. 

Blaze crossed her arms, but shut up. The gang exited the building and headed for the museum. As they entered, Michael and silver went straight to the gift shop. The rest continued onward. 

“Chris said that the u boat they're holding here was powered by a chaos emerald.” Cory stated. 

“yeah, we know Cory.” espio stated briefly. 

They walked through the exhibits, looking for the u boat, as they walked, espio felt like they were being followed. He looked around cautiously, but didn't see anyone. He kept his guard up. 

As they walked toward the u boat exhibit, they saw there were lots of people in the room. This wasn't good to Cory. They couldn't have witnesses to his awesome power. 

They entered the ship and searched around for the emerald, but couldn't find it. Espio kept looking around for the source of his discomfort, but couldn't see anyone. They moved on toward the driver's area of the submarine, and saw a hatch leading to the reactor. Going down, they realized that the emerald must have been removed to stop the power the ship had. They exited the ship, but were met with a familiar face. 

“looking for the emerald, eh? Well I can't let you give it to sigma,” the man said. 

“you! You were the guy I asked for directions. Who's sigma?” Cory asked. 

“don't play dumb, mavericks. You are the servants of sigma. And you're about to get destroyed by none other than zero.”

The screen faded to black.   
Then it faded back in. 

“you're about to get destroyed by none other than zero.”

Cory gasped as he pulled out his z Saber. It was zero from mega man x!!! Cory drew his katana. 

“I knew you were following us, I sensed it.” espio said. 

“heh, nice try, but with my stealth features I am all but invisible.”

“maybe to reploids…”

Zero was taken aback by this statement. No one should know that word in this dimension. 

“how do you know that word?” zero said, menacingly. Espio merely shrugged. Zero had come from the future in another dimension. In his dimension, Hitler didn't exist and his equivalent was a man named wily. 

Zero charged at espio in anger, espio knew too much. He slashed his z Saber, but espio dodged with his stealth. He ducked and dove behind zero, throwing a shrunken. Zero jumped and dashed in mid air to dodge it. 

Espio did a roll and threw three shurikens. Zero effortlessly slashed them with his sword and used his gun to shoot at espio. The battle lasted a while, each dodged the others attacks and neither landed a single hit. Eventually, both were exhausted, and they stood there panting, staring at each other. 

“heh, not bad for a person of the past. “ zero said. 

“hmph, you don't even see it yet.” espio shouted, “I'm from your time.”

Everyone stood there shocked as they waited for him to elaborate. Zero grunted, smirking, “so that's were you went, ninja guy who I met one time.”

“heh, after dramatically killing myself, I was able to transfer my consciousness into a living body, thus creating the ultimate ninja.” espio said, smirking. 

“well you didn't lose your skills.”

“heh, dont flatter me.”

“well can we find the emerald now that you guys are friends?” Cory interrupted. 

“no, I cannot allow you to give the emerald to my f- I mean to Hitler.” zero said. 

“well that's good because we are fighting against Hitler,” Cory said. 

“prove it.”

Cory pulled out the three chaos emerald they had acquired. Zero swiftly snatched them and dashed away. 

“I cannot let these fall into the hands of Hitler!” zero shouted behind him. 

Espio chased after him through the exhibits. Zero jumped over people using his super fighting robot powers. So did espio, but with his ninja powers or whatever. He was a badass either way. Zero slashed the elevator to the mining exhibit and slid down the side of the wall, espio jumped into a free fall down the shaft, throwing his grappling hook onto a bar at the top and sliding down to the bottom. 

Zero dashed through the Mines, dodging equipment everywhere. 

“you might be just as fast as me, but that isn't going to help you because I'm ahead of you.” zero shouted behind him. 

“too bad my shurikens defy this law.” espio said as he thew a shuriken at the ceiling, causing the fake rocks to fall on zero. 

Espio ran past him, grabbing the emeralds. He jumped onto the shuttle train just as it began to move. Conveniently, no one was on the train.   
Espio sighed in relief, but his relief was only for a moment as zero jumped onto the other train car. 

“persistent spawn of Hitler, give up already.”

“again, we are not part of Hitlers clique.” espio said, throwing his shuriken at his helmet. Zero easily slashed it in half. 

Zero pushed him back to the end of the train. Espio looked around for options, and got an idea, he jumped off, grabbing the floor of the train and swinging underneath it, holding onto the bottom of the cart. Zero gasped in exclamation. 

“you'll have to come out when the train stops, silly maverick,” zero said as he sat down, waiting patiently. 

“how about I come out before then,” espio said as he swing from the top of the cart and kicked zero straight in the face. Zero fell forward, panting in surprise. 

“heh, nice one. This isn't the last you'll see of me. I'll haunt you day and night. Inside and outside. Wherever you go, you'll see me.” with that, he threw down a gas canister and teleported away.

Espio coughed as he walked away. He didn't know what the gas was but it was probably just a way of disguising himself as he got away. He ran back to Cory and blaze, who were just standing there uselessly. 

“well, why didn't you look for the emerald?” espio said. 

“oh, ” Cory replied. 

Espio sighed and began walking to museum storage. Cory and blaze followed him down and into the warehouse- like room. They found the emerald easily and began walking back. Suddenly, espio sighted something up his left. He threw a shuriken at it, but it only hit a lamp. 

“what was that about?” blaze asked. 

“there was something there.”

“i didn't see anything.” Cory said, looking around. 

Espio looked around suspiciously. He had seen zero.


	19. Girls

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cory and Newt attempt to get girlfriends.

The word brought terror to Cory. It was his number one fear, but also the thing he wanted the most. That thing was, of course, girls. 

While espio was away fighting the red robot, Cory had been alone with blaze. That 10 minutes was the longest he's ever experienced. He didn't talk, she didn't want anything to do with him. 

Cory cursed in Japanese at the thought of that day. Never again would that happen to him. Never again. 

“blaze?” Cory asked. 

“what.” she snapped. 

“how do I get girls?”

“shut up. No one wants to be with you.”

Cory looked down and began to cry. His one dream would never come true. He could kill anything using his powers, but he couldn't slay his conscience. That didn't make sense but it still works. 

Cory got up, and ran away into the woods, arms trailing behind him. He ran further than he knew he could. Further than the boundaries of space time could leave most. He just left and went into the city. 

Cory was overwhelmed with the lights of the city at night. He must have walked miles, even light years just to get here based on how tired he was. 

Espio and silver appeared behind him, not even Breaking a sweat. 

“why’d you run off, man?” silver said, having regained his catchphrase. 

“of course you're out of breath after running 20 yards, you fat loser.” espio said, crossing his arms. 

Cory looked behind him and saw that they weren't in the woods, they were just in a park and Cory had only run out of the park. Cory sighed, still out of breath. 

“what did blaze say, man?” silver asked. 

“n-nothing.”

Cory began to walk away, not paying attention to where he was going. Silver gave espio a concerned look, espio glared at him, never make eye contact with espio. 

Cory opened his eyes eventually, seeing he had wandered into a shopping mall. 

Cory cursed in Japanese as he looked around, seeing females everywhere. 

“this is just like the last time we went to the mall…” silver said, with worry. 

“humph,” espio said, crossing his arms. 

Suddenly, Chad walked up to them. Chad had 500 girlfriends who lived in his mansion. He also had 20 wives and was filthy rich. 

“dudes, I'm going to tell you the secret to dating.” Chad said, whipping his hair back, “just be yourself.”

Cory had a serious sense of Deja vu. It felt as if this had happened before. Chad then beamed up to his jet and flew away. 

“well see you losers.” espio walked away. 

“Cory, didn't this happen before?” silver asked. 

“hmm let me think… no.”

“alright then, see anyone you like?”

Cory looked around for a girl, any girl who was in his league. Practically everyone there was below his league, what was he going to do? 

“just pick one, I'll be over there.” silver walked away, turning into newt. 

Cory decided to grace one girl and walked up to her. 

“h-hi!” cory shouted. 

The girl looked at him with a disgusted look and walked away. 

Cory knew she had only done that because she felt unworthy of him. He moved on to another girl. 

“um… hi.”

She turned to him and looked confused, “uh do I know you?”

“uh uh I wish you uh… knew me,” Cory said, trying to flirt.

“what? Who are you?”

“I'm Cory i-in the house.. “

“wait, you're that guy from before who I told to get lost. You aren't 6’2” so you arent worthy of any girl.” with that she walked away, leaving Cory disheartened. 

He decided to check on the others to see if they were doing any better than him. Not that they were better than him. He chucked to himself as he thought this. 

He walked up to espio, who was standing against a wall with his arms crossed. 

“what in Tarantino are you doing, espio?” the fat boy asked. 

“standing, I let the girls come to me.” espio said, scowling. 

“is it working?”

“it would be working if you weren't here.”

Cory sighed and walked over to silver, who was sitting down at a table in the food court. 

“how is your quest for girls going?” Cory asked him as he sat down. 

“hmm, not so good. I'm using the newt tactic, man.”

“whats that?”

“basically I stare at a girl until we make eye contact, then sometimes I maintain it and sometimes I quickly look away, man.”

“hmm maybe I'll try that.”

Cory started staring at a qt who was sitting alone. It took a few minutes, but she looked at him eventually. Cory held the eye contact as she got a disgusted look on her face and pulled out her phone, quickly dialing something. 

“hey, I think mine is calling her dad to see if she can date me!” Cory exclaimed. 

“wow, good job, man.”

A few minutes later, a cop walked up to Cory and handcuffed him. 

“sir, you're under arrest for stalking that girl.” the cop said. 

“dont worry, she's into it.”

“she called me.”

Cory felt betrayed, his heart broke in two as he walked away with the cop. They traveled in a police car many miles into the city. Cory looked out his window at the many people. All of them he had let down. All of them he had failed. Cory thought hard what he should do next, but couldn't think of anything. 

“you're going to be behind bars for a long time, kiddo,” the cop said. 

“B-but I need to save the world from Hitler.”

“haha like you could do anything to stop him.”

Cory took our his Fedora and closed his eyes, “no, I cannot go to jail. I need to save the world.”

“kid, what are you doing?”

“THIS IS WHO I AM.” Cory screamed as he went into his seppuku form. 

The lid of the car fell off as he rose out of it. He jumped away, landing on the lid and rode down an incline on top of it through the city. 

“this is it. I need to go. I need to escape from the city.” Cory said loudly as he slide down the inclines toward the park. He landed in front of the others, who had regrouped there. 

“guys, we need to escape from the city. The cops are after me.”

“finally we’ll be free from him.” espio commented. 

Cory grabbed everyone and used his chaos emerald to teleport them away. Miraculously it worked. The emeralds were now fully charged again and could be used to progress the mission. 

Cory opened his eyes, realizing they were in the middle of a desert. Across the plain sat a city. Then it hit Cory, they were near Vegas.


	20. Six Emeralds in Hand

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The squad finds themselves in Vegas, but they aren't alone.

They walked day and night, going toward the city. They needed to get to Vegas. The pyramid of Vegas held the key to the sixth chaos emerald. So far, they had 4 emeralds, one being taken by the bus driver. 

The sixth emerald was fabled to have power over gravity. 

“ah, Vegas. This is the where everything happens.” silver said. Blaze rolled her eyes. 

“I've been here before.” Michael said timidly. 

“shut up guys I'm trying to find the emerald.” Cory shouted. 

“we shouldve gotten transportation before going on this quest or whatever.” espio complained. 

“we do need transportation when we can teleport?” Cory asked. 

 

“well, why arent we teleporting then?” espio said, crossing his arms. 

“I love it when you get all angry,” blaze said. 

“shut up, cat.”

Blaze shut up. Cory didn't have an answer to espio. He didn't want to use the emerald. 

They walked toward the pyramid as they entered Vegas. The world around them shone with neon lights. Casinos appeared everywhere they walked. The walked right into the pyramid, Cory went to the desk. 

“where is the chaos emerald?” Cory asked the clerk. 

The clerk was looking down,he started chuckling, “wouldn't you like to know.”

With that he threw off his clothes and revealed his red armor underneath. It was zero! 

“you again? Why are you behind the desk?” espio asked. 

“heh, waiting for the right moment to strike and grab the emerald. Pharoah Aikman ra doesn't let anyone near it.”

“pharoah?” Cory asked. 

“yeah, it's Egypt themed down to the nose. They even have slaves.”

Cory glanced over and saw people in shackles carrying people's luggage.

“team up with us, zero.” Cory said. 

“sorry, I don't team up with maverick sympathizers.”

“we are not working for Hitler!” espio said. 

“can't ever be sure who someone really is, can you, shadow?”

Espio glared at him, “let's go grab the emerald.”

“i wouldn't try that. He's got the power of the gods.” zero stated. 

Espio rolled his eyes and walked toward the temple area. Inside sat Aikman ra on his throne. Behind him sat the chaos emerald. 

Espio snuck along the wall and went toward the emerald undetected. As he neared it, Cory shouted, “what do you want us to do?”

Espio rolled his eyes as the Pharoah turned around and forced him to the ground. He made the rest of them float in mid air. 

“kekekekeke, what do we have here? Trying to ‘nap my emer’ld eh? I should throw you in the scrarab pit.” he said. 

“nice going, Cory.” espio said. 

“give me one reason why you lot should get ma emer’ld.” 

“we need it to stop Hitler.” Cory said. 

“kekekekeke, stopping Hitler is a waste of time. He has infin’te strength.”

“b-but.”

“you shouldve thought of that before you tried to steal my emer’ld. Kekekekeke…” with that he jumped out of his chair and pulled out a sword. The gravity turned upside down, causing everyone to fall to the ceiling. The world around Cory faded as he hit his head on the hard cieling. 

Espio threw his shurikens at the king, but they fell straight to the ground, effected by gravity. Projectiles would not work here. 

Silver tried to fly off the ground, but the force of the gravity was too much, and he fell down. Michael jumped into action, hitting the king with his magic dance moves. The Pharoah grunted and forced Michael away, toward the lobby. 

It was looking like an uphill battle, not even blazes fire could do anything. The Pharoah shouted in Egyptian and flew toward espio, sword out. Suddenly, he was slashed away by a green blur. Zero had hit him! 

Zero dashed into the room, jumping off the wall and slashing the Pharoah. He grunted and turned to zero. 

“puny human, you have no place in this world. Go back.”

“i am not a human. Reeeeee!” zero screamed as he slashed the pharoah twenty six times, ending with a slash cutting him in half. The Pharoah exploded, leaving the emerald in its wake. 

Espio grabbed the emerald quickly and used it to make zero float. 

“ugh… why?”

“we need this stupid emerald to defeat Hitler, so stop.” espio replied. 

“fine, but remember, I'll be behind every corner. Regards.” with that, he teleported away. 

“how do you know him, espio?” Cory asked, regaining consciousness. 

“shut up,”espio said as he walked away. They now had 5 emeralds. The last two would likely be the hardest to find of all. Or maybe a protagonist that rarely shows up holds it, who knows, but Hitler still has one of the emeralds, so that's going to be a challenge.


	21. Haunted

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Espio is haunted by his rival in the Mojave desert.

The gang walked out of Vegas, heading back to DC. The president had summoned them back in order to inform them of the latest news. Cory still didn't want to use the emerald to teleport. 

“why the heck are you not using the teleport emerald. We are not walking all the way across the continent.” espio said, angry. 

“because I don't want to.”

Espio groaned and began walking away.

“where are you going?” Cory asked. 

“finding us transportation, fool.”

Cory looked down, the only competent one was not leaving them. 

Espio walked on and on until he found some warehouse in the middle of the desert. He shrugged, maybe there will be some sort of vehicle in there. 

He entered the building, only seeing crates everywhere. He walked in between the crates, searching for something that could help him. He turned a corner, seeing someone dash past him. Espio pulled out his Shurikens, looking for the person. Staying alert, he continued on, not knowing exactly where he was going. A flash of red caught his eye. He continued toward the red object, only to find himself at a dead end, surrounded by crates.

As he turned around, a figure dashed from his view behind him. Espio chased after the figure around the corner, but didn't see anything. He decided climbing the crates would give him a better vantage point. 

As he reached the top, he realized just how big this place was. It must have been at least the size of a football field, probably twice the size. It was filled to the brim with crates. Everywhere he looked he saw crates. 

Not seeing any vehicle, he decided to leave. As he looked in the doorway, he saw him. Zero. 

Words echoed in his head, “I'll be watching…” espio ran to the doorway, only to find him gone. Outside, he saw no trace of zero or anyone got that matter. He was alone. After a few hours, he found the gang in the middle of the Mohave. 

“where'd you go, man?” silver asked. 

“I didn't find anything.”

“well, at least you're back.” Cory said.

“shut it.”

They camped in the Mojave for the night. Cory got bitten by a rattlesnake and stuff. Espio stayed awake all night, looking for zero. He knew he was out there, but where? He was always watching. 

It was around 2 am when espio saw him again. He quickly woke up Cory and pointed at the desert. In the middle of two hills stood zero, his eyes glowed in the night. Cory looked close. 

“I can't see anything, what are you pointing at?”

“it's zero you idiot, he's stalking us.”

“i don't see anyone, maybe you need some sleep, Baka senpai.”

“dont call me that. I see him. It's the real zero. I'll go over there and prove it.” with that, espio got up and went toward the two hills, as he approached them, zero disappeared. Espio, for the first time in his life, was astonished. 

He went back to camp. Maybe he was hallucinating. Maybe he had a problem. He was too fixed on that reploid that he couldn't even concentrate. Every moment felt like another tick toward his inevitable doom. Any moment he could strike, and any moment espio could die. He needed to stay alert. 

3 days later, espio had not gotten any sleep and was still alert at all times. Cory became worried for him, he was the only competent one in the group. 

“espio you need sleep,” Cory said. 

“no. I don't. I need to stay alert. Who knows when that red reploid will strike again?” 

Cory walked away, giving up on espio. Espio continued to stay awake for almost a week. On day six, he couldnt focus on anything except being on lookout. It was then that it hit him. Zero could be disguised as any one of his “friends.”

He couldn't trust anyone. Everyone could be zero. Every single person pm earth could be zero. Did zero even exist, or was he just an illusion? Espio abandoned the gang at that moment, walking away into the Mojave with nothing but his weapons. Cory and the gang didn't notice until days later. 

He continued onward for miles into the desert, not seeing anything but rattlesnakes and cactuses. Eventually he ran into a lot my time abandoned house. Decay showed its face on the house. Every window was broken and the walls were covered in desert flora. 

Espio walked through the house, looking everywhere for evidence of zero. He felt a sudden surge of heat, his entire body fell to the ground, he thought this was the end. Zero had found him. His vision went dark. Everything blured. He felt two figures approach. 

“what should I do with him?” one said.   
“you know exactly what to do. He's not one of them, you know.”

“but that man… he said…”

“he was wrong.”

“alright… I'll do it… x…. “ everything went to black. 

Espio woke up in the front seat of a bus. The bus was turned on and was I'm some sort of garage. He looked at his watch. 5 hours had passed. He groaned and looked down at the controls. He had found a vehicle. 

He drove off toward the gang, parking next to them. 

“I found a vehicle.” he simply said. 

“woah cool, a bus. I love bus.”

“shut up Cory.”

Everyone got on the bus and they headed for DC. Dark clouds loomed in the distance. The final battle was soon to come. Along the way they had made many Allies, lost many, and made many enemies. One emerald remains unfound. Soon it shall be unearthed.


	22. Where we are now

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A recap of Cory's story

Cory began his journey in the humble town of Washington DC. He lived in the white house with his dad, the president, newt, some Italian dude, and random other people. He and newt lived in broom closets. After meeting a blue alien named xerath, cory learned of his full potential and how he must save the world. 

Cory travels to an abandoned building and meets slender man, an antagonist and a general of the creepypasta gang. After escaping back to the white house, Cory is given the light katana, one of the few relics remaining from the lost civilization of Japan, but has a hard time controlling it. 

Cory and newt go to the mall to try to get girls but quickly learn they're terrible at it and get bummed out. They meet Chris, a man with a medallion that lets him turn into a sonic character. Together they go outside and buy some pills from a guy in the storm drain that will make them taller and let them get girls. The gang goes on an acid trip and gets arrested. 

Cory goes to the middle of a field with chris to begin his training. Something happens to a plane or something. Later, Cory enters a bus driven by a driver who almost ran him over earlier. He ends up staying on it too long and finds himself in Iowa. Eventually he escapes that hell. It is revealed that Hitler has been revived and the bus driver, Kanye east(Kanye west's brother) and a mysterious third figure are all part of Hitlers cult. 

Kanye east and Cory go through the nine layers of hell after Cory thinks he's earned a spot there. Kanye east steals an artifact from Satan that allows him to bring Hitler back to full power. They all escape but Cory is separated from Kanye. 

Cory is transported into the internet where he discovers many secrets that are pointless to anyone but him. He realizes he cannot escape from the virtual world and decides to end it all. He enters the deep web, finds the internet control panel, and watches the world wide web come to an end. 

Cory travels to California for some reason and meets two minecraft youtubers. They need to find a way to Japan to find the mythical fedora that Cory saw in a dream. The gang breaks into Eggman's base and steaks one of his ships. They all fly to Japan and witness the destruction. USA blew up Japan or something I don't know. They travel through caves and find a secret monastery. Newt shows up and brings Cory his sword, oh yeah he forget his sword. A bunch of samurai warriors come out and kill the YouTubes but then they see Cory and bow down, leading him to the fedora. As Cory puts it on he realizes that the fedora protects the monastery and now the creepypasta gang broke into the garden. 

Cory fights bravely and finds himself fighting slenderman inside his own mind. Cory wins, of course. Newt realizes he's actually silver the hedgehog trapped in a human body. They beat the creepypasta gang soldiers and return home. 

Season 2 begins with Cory talking to the president. Many months had passed and Hitler had taken over all of Europe and most of the Middle East. Newt had left, trying to find himself. Cory learns about the seven chaos emeralds and what he must do to find them. He finds one inside his hat which allows him to teleport.

Cory seeks out the second emerald, finding espio the chameleon. He's an edgelord. Cory tries to get him to join the team but he won't unless Cory finds Michael Jackson. Cory travels to Detroit and almost becomes a skeleton but Michael saves him with the power of the second chaos emerald which can cloak and alter appearances. They return to espio who burned down the forest he lived in and his only friend died. Espio decides to go with them because he has nothing else to do. 

They find newt who is now working as a cashier. He's super depressed and stuff and is a total loser living in a small apartment. They basically force him to join them. They travel back to Eggman's base to find the third emerald. They break in but are caught. Newt becomes silver for a moment. Cory discovers his seppuku form which can vastly enhance his power. They find the emerald which allows time travel. 

The gang goes to Chris who is now Christine. She informs them that the next emerald is in area 51. They all travel there and meet up with Lara croft. Cory gets jealous of espio and Laras sweet moves and absolutely massacres a creature with his sword. This is the first instance of evil in Cory. Cory also discovers seppuku form has tiers that double his power each time. They find the emerald, which nullifies all other emeralds powers, and Hitler's minion the bus driver steals it. 

Lara dies. 

Newt enters an alternate dimension where Hitler and Eggman had fused. He meets up with Blaze who helps him turn back into silver permanently. They end up going back to the real world and now Blaze is there.

The gang travels to Chicago hoping to find the fifth emerald in the museum of science and industry. They discover Zero, a robot from the future in another dimension where a villain named sigma replaces Hitler. Zero thinks they're working for Hitler. Espio knows zero somehow. They find the emerald in the museum. Zero says he's going to stalk them. The fifth emerald can make objects float. Useless. 

Espio, Newt and Cory go to the mall to get girls. Cory gets arrested for stalking a girl and breaks out of the cop car. They all teleport using the emerald and go straight to Vegas. They run into Zero again and it is revealed that Espio is actually named shadow. They learn that a mysterious Pharoah controls the sixth emerald. They get it or whatever. The emerald controls gravity. 

Cory refuses to teleport back to DC so they walk. Espio goes out to find transportation. He is haunted by zero in the desert and nearly dies. He finds a bus and takes the gang in. 

That's what happened so far. Who is shadow? Where are the Xerath race? Where is the last emerald? Will Cory ever become all powerful? Who is the real overlord of all these powers? Find out in the exciting 3 part finale to season 2: Xerath chronicles.


	23. Xerath Chronicles Part I

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cory awakens on the Xerath moon base.

Darkness surrounded Cory as they rode through the desert toward Washington DC. The moon shone overhead, the only sound was the loud roar of the bus engine. The darkness seemed to swallow everything around him, the lone lights were the headlights of the bus and Vegas. But, for some reason, Cory wasn’t afraid. The darkness seemed… comforting…

I’m the new kid, moving in, getting it done.

Words rang through Cory’s head. He wasn’t alone. Then he realised that he wasn’t alone because other people were on the bus. Cory sat alone in the back of the bus, everyone else was in the front. He pulled out his light katana, the glow of the blade instantly penetrated the darkness.

And I’m officially the candidate for having some fun.

Suddenly the blade began to dim. Cory’s eyes widened, what was happening. Was the voice doing this?

I’m talking about all out party.

The blade dimmed more, Cory put on his fedora, hoping to save the blade.

And we’re getting it started.

The blade stopped glowing altogether. Darkness once again surrounded him.

Mr. president, you mind some electric guitar?

Suddenly, the blade began to get darker and darker, as if a shadow possessed it.

WASHINGTON D.C. WILL NEVER BE THE SAME.

Cory was taken aback as the blade turned as dark as a black hole. It was as if all light bent to it’s will. Cory felt something stir inside him, he took off his shirt to see what was happening. Within the pounds of solid fat, he saw his heart was as black as the blade. So black that it was visible through the piles of repulsive fat. Cory jumped up, but instantly passed out.

He awoke in a large room, technology seemed to cover the walls. A mechanical humming echoed through the room as Cory stood up. There were four doors on each of the sides of the circular room. Up ahead, a catwalk for observing could be seen. The walls glowed light blue. Where was he?

“So you’re awake,” a voice from behind him said.

Cory whipped around to see Xerath, the girl who Cory had met in D.C. Behind her stood many other blue colored people who looked similar to her.

“Cory, the darkness is penetrating you,” Xerath said, pointing to Cory’s visible heart.

This angered Cory, for whatever reason, and he drew his katana. The blade rippled spacetime, distorting the environment around it. Cory’s eyes turned as dark as his blade as he charged at Xerath, blade above shoulder. Xerath dodged at the last minute, drawing twin daggers. Cory slid to a halt, turning his head to look at Xerath once again.

“Cory, this isn’t you. You have to fight it!”

Cory roared a magnificent roar as he charged once again, bringing his blade above his head and jumping. He swiped at Xerath, but it was blocked by her daggers. Cory stumbled back, quickly recovering to slash at her from the right. Xerath backflipped over the blade, countering it with her own blade. Cory flew back from her blow, falling to the ground. As his vision returned, he felt something wet on his face. Cory reached up, only to discover blood. A cut ran down the side of his face, dripping red sticky blood. Cory immediately began to vomit from the sight of it.

Xerath walked over, sensing the danger had begun to subside. As Cory recovered from vomiting, he began to come to his senses.

“Xerath, what happened to me?” Cory asked, astonished.

“The darkness happened. Four million years ago, the god Kek formed the seven emeralds, but the power contained in them was too much for him to handle. Kek retreated into the primordial realm, but his power was still reserved. For many years, the ancient Egyptians held the emeralds as relics, worshiping Kek for the god he was. As time went by, the darkness began to leave Kek, and he was once again pure, but the darkness existed as an entity separate from Kek. They fought a tremendous battle, and the darkness retreated to the edge of space, existing within a black hole. For many years, the darkness was thought to have been vanquished, until now. We sensed it first when you were in area 51. A large spike in dark activity was detected on you, Cory. After tonight, we are convinced you are hosting the darkness.”

“But, how do you know?” Cory asked.

Xerath closed her eyes, “We are the ancient Egyptians, the cult of Kek. The god Osiris made us immortal, turning our skin blue in the process. The Xerath have been living on the dark side of the moon for over 5000 years, fighting the darkness in any way we can. That brings us… to the prophecy.”

Cory looked at her curiously as she looked over at a male Xerath wearing fancy clothing. He nodded at her, telling her to go ahead without words.

Xerath nodded and turned back to Cory, “I was supposed to tell you this on the first day, but I was unable to. Cory, you know you are destined to defeat Hitler and in the process defeat the darkness, but I did not tell you what you must do. Cory, you must sacrifice yourself,” Xerath looked away as she said it.

“Y-you mean…. Commit seppuku?”

Xerath nodded sadly, “You must do it after you defeat Hitler, it’s the only way to defeat the darkness.”

A sudden anger came over Cory. His heart turned even darker as he got up, katana in hand. Xerath began to stand ready, but was halted as an arm went in front of her. Xerath, the king of the Xerath’s, stood at the ready. He pulled out a Khopesh, a long, curved sword used by the Egyptians. It lite up with the power of the great god Kek. Cory stared at Xerath, his sword seemed to distort time and space more as his hatred grew.

“This battle ended long ago, darkness! Give up the boy!” 

A deep, raspy voice came out of Cory, “Foolish human, the great god Kek cannot protect you from me. You forget, this boy has 5 chaos emeralds, plus the primal fedora. I am invincible!” The darkness put on the fedora, instantly, 5 emeralds floated around him, stopping and flying straight into his soul. Distorted smoke, darker than a black hole, began to resonate around him. 

Xerath laughed and pulled out a single chaos emerald, “with this emerald, I call upon you, Kek. Give me the power of chaos and the primordial prologue of Ra!”

A silhouette of a frog headed man came over Xerath, his blade grew as it began to glow, much like how Cory’s did. The world around the two seemed to distort, completely stopping time itself. The only two beings to exist were the darkness and Xerath.   
Cory charged at Xerath, katana raised. He seemed to fly over the ground, not even touching it with a single molecule. Xerath disappeared and reappeared moments later, as if Cory had run right through him. He swung his Khopesh, light hitting darkness, further distorting time itself. The two separated, which seemed to bring time back to normal. Cory brought upon him the power of seppuku. But instead of his eyes glowing, darkness fell upon him. His power level raised and his blade distorted reality as it moved. Xerath ran toward Cory, but he saw the man coming and dodged his attack. Xerath quickly turned and swung his sword in a circle. As he swung again and again, a light as bright as the sun came upon him. He ran toward Cory, and the two clashed swords, moving faster than the speed of sound as they tried to get a hit in.

The two flew back, crashing through the ceiling into the cold dark reaches of space. They were inside a base on the moon. Instantly the broken walls fixed themselves. Below them sat a magnificent city on the surface of the moon. Technology flourished as far as the eye could see, surrounding a giant statue of Kek, a man with the head of a frog. 

Cory turned back to Xerath, bringing his katana up. The two floated above the colony in space, apparently unaffected by the little gravity on the moon. Looking up from the colony, one could see the battle play out. One glowing figure and another figure who looked like a black hole clashed, flying at one another at incredible speeds. They seemed evenly matched, none could best the other. They flew at each other for what seemed like a millenia, clashing swords. With each slash, distortion surrounded them. 

Each one charged at the other, a blinding flash was seen. They stopped. Xerath on one side and Cory on the other. Cory smirked, his eyes closed. Xerath looked down wide eyed, his arm fell down to the surface along with his sword. 

He turned to Cory, “please, have mercy!”

Cory turned and smirked. He changed to seppuku due, the distortion around him began to grow. Seppuku tre, screaming as a black hole formed around his sword. Seppuku quattro. He swung his sword straight at Xerath, screaming as loud as possible. Xerath looked in horror as his body was ripped apart, molecule by molecule in a black hole. It didn’t stop there though, time began to distort around him, making him relive the agony exponentially for infinity. Cory reached in and pulled the chaos emerald out of him, inserting it into himself.

The power seemed to overload him, though, and he fell back down into the space station. Cory awoke much later, staring up at Xerath. She looked at him sadly. 

“You killed our leader,” She said simply, “leave.”

Cory got up, looking down at his hands. Who was he? He began walking away, toward a door with a portal back to Earth in it.

“Wait,” Xerath said, walking up to him, “There may be one way to destroy the darkness. None of us thought he would take over the chosen one, but now that he has there may be a way to destroy him. Get the chaos emerald that was in area 51, its power to deactivate the emeralds may make the entity come out of you, or it may end up killing you. The only problem is that the emerald is with Hitler in Berlin. Sneak in, take the emerald, repel the darkness, and kill Hitler. This may be your final mission.”

She opened the door without a word, the portal to Earth glowed. She set the coordinates to the bus and pulled the lever, igniting the portal. Cory had brought nothing but chaos to the moon base, but as Cory left he had hope. Hope that he could save the world. He touched the scar that now decorated his face and walked through the portal.


	24. Xerath Chronicles part II

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cory, Newt, Espio, Shadow, and Micheal prepare for their journey to Berlin to put a stop to Hitler and the darkness.

Cory awoke in the bus, had it all been a dream? He got up and looked into a mirror, seeing the scar on his face. It hadn’t.

“Where have you been?” Newt came in and asked, “we have news…”

Cory walked outside, seeing the remains of a battle. 

“Hitler sent troops here to kill us,” Newt said sadly, “They managed to completely remove silver from me and… and… murdered Blaze…”

Cory looked in horror at the freshly dug grave. They were in the middle of a wooded area, dead soldiers littered the ground. Cory looked up, the sun shone down upon them brightly. How could this happen on such a nice day?

Espio stared at them, no emotion on his face, “We need to go, D.C. isn’t that far away.”

As he said that, a black figure fell from the sky, landing on Blaze’s grave. It was none other than Shadow the Hedgehog.

“Where’s that damn fourth chaos emerald?” he asked, grabbing Cory by the throat.

“H-hitler h-has i-i-i-i-i-i-it!”

He released Cory and turned to the group, “The president needs that emerald in order to destroy Hitler, if you’re not with me, then you’re my enemy,” he pulled out a gun.

“We’re going to Berlin to defeat Hitler anyway, come with us!” Michael said innocently.

Shadow grunted and moved straight to Jackson, “and you are?”

“I’m the completely out of character Michael Jackson, or Micheal as I’m sometimes called. I’m quiet but I help as much as I can.”

Shadow grunted and walked toward the bus, “get in, peasants.”

“You have no authority over us, you’re just some loser who works for the president.” Espio said, crossing his arms.

“Shut up, you’re just a robot disguised as a chameleon!”

Everyone turned to Espio, he looked down. 

“I must confess now and give to you my backstory. I was created by a robot named X in the future in another dimension, the same dimension that Zero comes from. My name was Shadow, I was a ninja robot meant to serve X to protect the humans. All went well until master X was infected by a virus which turned him evil. Bound to protect X, we were forced to lash out against the humans according to his will. There was a rebellion, led by Zero, to take back the world from X. In the midst of a battle with Zero, I faked my own death and disappeared into your dimension. Upon arrival, I realised how wrong I was and took on a new identity, Espio the chameleon,” Espio closed his eyes, turning back to his original form, a black humanoid robot with a red scarf. 

Everyone just accepted that and they went on their way to Washington D.C. The words “washington D.C. will never be the same” haunted Cory as they entered the city, pulling up in front of the white house. As Cory got out of the bus, he realised that this was the same bus that had been used by the bus driver, the same one which he had been kidnapped in and taken to Iowa. Since the bus driver now rode in an airship, he must have abandoned his old bus. Ironic that it was now their method of transportation.

Cory walked toward the president's office, signalling that everyone should stop following. He entered the oval office, the president sat in his chair looking out the window.

“The balance of power has shifted.” He simply said as he turned toward Cory.

“I have 6 of the emeralds. The last one is in Berlin with Hitler.”

“Shadow commed me, I know. We must get that emerald, my master plan to defeat Hitler requires all of the chaos emeralds.”

“What is your plan, sensei?”

“I cannot speak of it yet, but I can tell you something else. Our scientists have refurbished your bus to fly, now you can fly straight to Hitler from across the Atlantic ocean. You’ll need to be stealthy though, one wrong move and you’ll be prisoners of war. Do it in the name of America, in the name of Japan, and in my name, John Henry Eden.”

Cory nodded, walking out of the room. The gang was waiting outside, Cory walked right past them and continued toward the white house entrance. He stopped and turned toward a door. Xerath’s words echoed through Cory’s head, he may never see any of this again. He entered his old room, or closet and sat down on the bed. He picked up his old sonic comic, recalling his time in the abandoned building fighting slenderman. He looked at the other items, seeing the amulet Chris had given him. It was his transformation amulet, carved in the face of a character named Sonichu, Chris’s OC. Cory now knew that the amulet actually ran on the power of the second chaos emerald, and Chris had given it to Michael Jackson because he was a pop star and stuff. Chris gave the useless amulet to Cory. Cory wept.

He got up with confidence. He was now ready to die for his country. He walked out of the room and straight to the bus. Cory was a changed man. As he entered the bus, he wasn’t that sad little boy anymore, he was a true man and nobody could tell him what to do because he was strong and independent. The bus flew off toward Berlin, Cory stood in front of his comrades.

“When we get to Berlin, there will be soldiers everywhere. Danger will be everywhere. I want you to know that I appreciate you all and admire your service to this nation. This isn’t for me, this isn’t for the Xerath, this is for America, and by extension the entire Earth. Death will not welcome us because we will not let it, now who’s with me?” Cory yelled.

“What is a Xerath?” Newt asked innocently.

Micheal began to hum to himself. This had been a long journey, he had learned more here than his entire music career. He looked out his window at the Atlantic ocean below them. Ever since he faked his own death to escape the paparazzi, he had been lonely. Skeletons had chased him, he still couldn’t explain them though. But when he met these people, he knew he could rely on them. Sure, some were edgy and some were depressing, but together they formed an unstoppable team.

Newt looked at the waves below them, thinking to himself over the past few months. So much had changed, yet he still felt exactly the same as when he was working at the grocery store. He had learned of his past, fought his demons, and met the love of his life once more, only to have all that progress ripped away from him in mere seconds. Hitler would pay for this. 

In the distance, they began to see the destruction. They flew over France, one of the biggest war zones. United States troops and Nazi troops battled each other to the death, betraying each other’s rights to live. This wasn’t real life anymore, this was war. 

The bus entered German territory. This was it. The final battle had begun.


	25. Xerath Chronicles Part III

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cory must face off against the nazi army to retrieve the fourth chaos emerald from Adolf Hitler himself.

Chills went down Cory’s spine as he entered Berlin. The city was massive, it was a magnificent paradise. He stared upward in awe at the tall buildings. The streets were clean and filled with vegetation. Berlin was perfect.

Following Cory was Shadow, Shadow, Newt, and Michael Jackson. The dream team had united. Cory led the gang as they walked down the street toward the capitol building. 

“The capitol is at the center of the city, to reach it we’ll need to find it first, we need to get to a taller building,” Newt said. Everyone agreed except for shadow and shadow, who scoffed. They entered the nearest building and went straight to the roof. From this height, they got a better view at the city. It was beautiful. The center of the city seemed to be the older part, which had an old timey feel to it. How could something so amazing be so evil?

Newt looked through his hands, you probably forgot that he got magnifying lenses surgically inserted into holes in his hands, and looked toward the building, “It’s swarming with creepypasta gang members, we’ll never get past them.”

Cory looked out at the city, “we’ll need to. We need to get-”

“-That damn fourth chaos emerald,” Shadow the hedgehog finished.

“Maybe I can be of assistance.” Zero dropped down from a taller building, landing near them, “I now know you are hell bent on taking down Hitler.”

“Yes we are, I would know, I’ve been to hell,” Cory replied.

Zero grabbed his Z-saber and drew a map on the rooftop, “We are able to get to the capitol, but unfortunately there is the airship nearby with it’s shield generators. We split up, Shadow, Shadow, and I go to turn off the shields and the rest of you go to the capitol and take out the creepypasta gang members, questions?”

“Will I still get the emerald when we are finished?” Shadow asked aggressively.

“Yes.”

“OK.”

The gang began running across the rooftops, arms behind their back as they approached the capitol area. Cory nodded at Shadow and they split off into two groups. Michael, Cory, and Newt ran straight for the capitol as Shadow, Shadow, and Zero headed for the bus driver’s airship.

Cory and the gang jumped from the rooftops, landing in front of a group of gang members. Newt shouted, “hello there!”

The gang turned around toward them, each one seemed to be a terrible OC of some sort. They all held knives or bats or some sort of melee weapon. Guns weren’t edgy enough for them. Cory grabbed his katana out, Micheal readied his magical dust- spewing sleeves, and Newt pulled out his fists I guess. The gang ran up to them, ready to kill. Cory dodged their attacks and stabbed at them, out poured hyper-realistic blood. Today was the day of all the blood. Newt cowered in fear as one came toward him. He punched at the creepypasta and it exploded into blood, covering Newt with it. 

“These guys are weak, Cory!” Newt yelled.

Cory began slashing them down like mad, each one exploded, covering the ground in a thick coating of blood. Michael released boatloads of his magic powder at a group of them, completely destroying each and every one of them. As the dust cleared, Cory stared in horror at the streets covered in all of the blood. Hyper-realistic blood was everywhere and covered everything. IT WAS LIKE A MURDER HAD HAPPENED!!!!!!

Cory began walking toward the capitol, but stopped as he saw that a shield covered it. Hitler had holographic shielding powers. A shadow fell from the sky, and it wasn’t one of the protagonist shadows. Ugh that’s getting confusing just bear with it.

“Itsa me, remember me?” Luigi, the Italian chef said as he removed his chef hat.

“LUIGI? I thought you worked for the president!” Cory shouted.

“Iya do but asa time went on Iya saw that Iya could starta mafia based on creepypasta-as!”

“How does that make sense?”

“Thata man- slenderman- I tamed him and heya had friends!”

 

“You became the leader of all of the creepypastas?!?”

“Si, and now youa gunna paya!”

Meanwhile, team 2 had reached the airship and were currently making their way into the actual ship. At the top of the ladder, they were greeted with SS troopers, who shot at them, all three of them dodged the bullets, but were ultimately overpowered by the mere size of the troop squad. A man was heard laughing as they fell down.

“Hello, friends!” the bus driver said as he entered the room, “I don’t remember any of you, but I’m sure you’re working against us!” He pointed to his armband with a swastika, “you’ll never reach Hitler, Cory can’t stop us!”

“Let us go! We need that damn fourth chaos emerald,” Shadow the hedgehog said.

“No, we will be testing my new technology on you, it’s a new gun that combines things, we will be using it on living beings for the first time!” He pointed the gun at the three of them and zapped them. A bright light shone, and out came a humanoid robot that was red and black, he had a certain edge to him and held a katana and a gun.

“Wait, you weren’t supposed to survive that, it should have melted your conflicting parts null and deleted you from existence!”

“Jokes on you,” he said, “We were basically the same person before, now were are one. Null. That sounds edgy enough. I’m null now, moron!” He shot the bus driver many times before open firing on all of the SS troopers, occasionally slashing them with his katana. After dealing with all of them, he moved on toward the next room and destroyed the shield generator, jumping out of the airship before the entire thing exploded, silhouetting him over the fiery explosion.

Meanwhile, Cory and the gang stared in horror as Luigi pulled out his spatula, turning it into a bladed weapon. Cory drew his own weapon, it still glowed black as night and distorted the air around it. Luigi wiped his brow and ran at Cory with all his might. Both of them were fat and ugly, both of them were good with blades. They caught each other in a duel, both clashed their blades together, focussing on each other.

“Cory! I needa to tella you about your father!”

Cory stared in horror as he saw that Luigi might be his father.

“I KILLDA YOUR FATHER!” Cory’s heart began to break as he pushed Luigi away. He pulled out his fedora, a single tear fell from his eye. He put on the fedora and stared at Luigi with hate. The tear fell slowly to the ground, it slowly turned to the darkest black and began distorting the air around it. As it landed, the ground warped around it, breaking reality.

Luigi laughed insanely, enjoying the darkness take over Cory. He turned to Newt and threw his weapon at him, but Michael jumped in front of him. Cory raised his katana and began slicing Luigi into a million pieces. His hatred completely engulfed him. All that was left of Luigi after was his chef hat, which he had taken off before. Newt cried out to cory as he went over to Michael, that had the power to dissipate the darkness for now.

Cory ran over to Michael, who was on the ground suffering.

“C-cory…” he said weakly, “leave me, you… you must take back what’s yours… hatred… don’t let it… take… over…… remember my songs….”

Michael/Micheal stopped moving. Michael Jackson had died. 

*Smooth criminal intro begins to play*

Cory got up from his spot beside the dead man, and drew his katana. The shield had gone away as he killed Luigi. He walked onward, Newt looking at him with pride, “go get him.”

As he came into the window  
Was a sound of a crescendo

Cory walked through the capitol gardens, surrounded by flowers of all kinds. SS guards swarmed him, but he slashed them down effortlessly. He began to glow as he entered seppuku form.

He came into her apartment  
He left bloodstains on the carpet

He continued onward, walking into the building and into the lobby, everyone turned in fear as he began to glow blue with seppuku due. The words of Xerath echoed in his head. He was prepared to die.

She was sitting at the table  
He could see she was unable

Wordlessly, he passed the lobby and went to the second floor, which was covered with guards. Cory raised his hand, sending them all flying into rooms on the side of the long hallway.

So she ran into the bedroom  
She was struck down  
It was her doom

Cory burst through the door as Michael’s ghostly voice sang “Annie, are you OK.” Hitler turned in his chair, it was the meeting of two legends. This may be the greatest moment in human history. This was it, the battle that would decide the fate of the universe. 

“Cory ‘in the house,’ I see you were welcomed well.” Hitler said.

“Don’t lecture me, Hitler. This is my destiny. Now give. Me. The. Chaos. Emerald!”

Hitler chuckled and got up from his desk, walking around to face Cory, “you’re on the wrong side, Cory. The darkness has overtaken you and clouded your judgement. The president is planning to destroy the moon and thus destroy the great god kek.”

“YOU’RE LYING!” Cory shouted as he moved his katana into a ready position.

“Young, ignorant Cory. You have been tricked!” Hitler pulled out a recording and pressed play on it, Cory recalled it as the same one the president had played when he first was given the katana.

“The world is different now. Japan has fallen, and the United States has taken over for them in terms of culture. Through the power of the internet, we make people learn Japanese through rosetta stone and celebrate Japanese culture, effectively making Japan live on after death. In an expedition to the abandoned country of Japan, we discovered a large room housing a katana of pure light and murals depicting a hero defeating waves of monsters. One of the murals seems to depict the Xerath race. Another mural has needed revision because it contained me leading the demons. I know now what I must do. I must trick the hero to believe another is the enemy. As soon as I find the hero, I must take him and teach him to fight with that light katana. I believe I know who he is, though, so I have given his father a job at my house, even if he’s a bad chef. Soon I will replace him with a better one, though his son must stay. His son is the hero.” 

“YOU FAKED THAT!” Cory yelled as he ran at Hitler with his katana. Hitler jumped out of the way, jumping toward a closet. He grabbed the fourth emerald out and threw it on the ground.

“You’ll have to beat the darkness, Cory. It does not only control you.” He then jumped out the window and flew away with a jetpack.

Cory grabbed the emerald and held it up to the light. It began to glow and the other emeralds fell to the ground, now rendered useless. Cory then felt the darkness leave him, his blade began to shine once again. He sighed in relief. He didn’t have to kill himself.

Suddenly, Cory felt a dark presence behind him. He turned to see a dark copy of himself, every detail the same. He held a katana and had a fedora on his head. It was the darkness.

“Thank you Cory, you have released me to be independent in this world! Unfortunately, you are too powerful to be left alive. Say goodbye,” the darkness said.

“Cory, you must sacrifice yourself,” Xerath’s voice echoed to Cory. He now knew what he must do.

Cory readied his katana and ran at darkness, his slash was met with the blade of darkness. It was light on darkness. Cory slid back and slashed once again. Each slash was blocked by the darkness blade.

“You cannot defeat me, I AM YOU!”

“NO!” Cory yelled as he threw himself at darkness, slashing at him with precision blows, each one was met with a block. Cory was knocked back, straight into the emeralds. Cory looked down at the deactivated emeralds and noticed the one Xerath had used to summon kek upon him. Cory grabbed it and held it up.

“KEK! I SUMMON THEE UPON MYSELF!” Cory yelled, but nothing happened.

Darkness chuckled at Cory, “Your emeralds are useless as you have used the power of the fourth emerald!”

Cory grunted and screamed as he enter seppuku tre. He grew into a new form, the form of Cory with a purple hue around him. His long, auburn hair flowed behind him with the wind of the power.

“Foolish child, you can never overpower me,” He teleported them to the black hole near the moon, “I created an infinite black hole that loops exponentially! I cannot be defeated! I AM A GOD!!!” 

Cory closed his eyes and realised seppuku form didn’t have tiers. It was only his power level. He screamed and enter seppuku infinite form!

“SO AM I.” The god kek showed up faintly over Cory, the emerald powered up and began to glow brightly. 

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!” Cory shouted as they clashed swords once again.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAA!” Darkness shouted back.

“I AM MORE THAN A GOD AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!” Cory slashed at him, breaking the darkness katana in half and opening another black hole, sucking them both in. They struggled as they flew through the black hole, slowly being ripped apart molecule by molecule. Suddenly, a bright light fell over Cory, and he was lifted up out of the black hole.

“This isn’t the last you’ll see of me, I am everywhere and in everything. Expect me!” Darkness said as he disappeared from view. Cory looked up to see what the light was, it was the great god kek.

“Good job, child. You have conquered the darkness and have become a hero among the nations. What do you wish to do now?” Kek stated, staring at him with his frog eyes.

“I want to go back to my normal life, back to the white house, back to the good old days.”

Kek closed his eyes, and smiled at Cory, “remember, the darkness is still out there, and only time will tell who your friends and enemies are. Goodbye!” Kek faded and Cory closed his eyes to the blinding light.

He awoke in the garden of the white house, back where it had all begun. Cory brushed his long auburn hair out of his face and looked around. Newt got up nearby, as well as Null. On the other side of the garden sat the body of Michael Jackson, one of the many heroes who gave their lives in the battle of Berlin. 

“Cory, we did it! We beat Hitler and saved the world, man!” Newt said, getting back his shtick. 

Cory nodded, but knew that Hitler was still out there. Today, though, they would celebrate, Hitler was defeated and at the lowest power he had ever been at, besides dead. 

“W-what happened to you, shadow?” Cory asked, feeling much like his old self again.

“I have become the embodiment of an experiment, I am now Null.”

“O-oh, that makes sense.”

Cory got up and walked over to Michael.

“He’s gone, man. We need to bring his legacy with us, man!” Newt exclaimed.

“What if he’s just sleeping. Maybe he’s in a coma! Sonic would know what to do!” Cory shouted, in denial. Newt merely shook his head, they all went back into the white house, leaving a dead body in the white house garden in plain view.

Null slipped away from the group and walked up to the president's office. He dropped the seven chaos emeralds on his desk silently.

“Good job Shadow, you’ve done good for your country.”

“It’s null now.” Null said, crossing his arms.

“Of course it is. Now we can activate phase two of our plan.”

“Whatever,” Null said, uninterested. He had no interest in this plan. He was part of a plan he wasn’t interested in.

The president turned in his chair, looking at a map on the wall, “I have another assignment for you. There is a floating island somewhere on this earth with a deity known as ‘knuckles the echidna.’ He is the guardian of the chaos emeralds and knows how to combine them into the master emerald. Find him, but don’t tell Cory or the others about it. They will be sent on different missions.”

Null was torn, though they were essentially the same people, shadow, zero, and espio all had different loyalties. What would Null end up choosing? The reploids Zero was a part of from the future in another dimension, the president who had given shadow the right to kill, or the earth that espio vowed to protect from evil? Only time would tell.

Meanwhile, Cory suddenly realised his fedora was gone, replaced with a bandana around his head, a symbol of power. He was disappointed a little, but he knew that Kek had transformed it so he could fulfill the prophecy. The darkness was still out there, possessing Hitler, probably. He would need the help of his trusted friends to do it, nothing was going to stop them now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, that’s season II. What a ride. I kind of forgot this was a Cory in the house fanfiction halfway through Xerath Chronicles Part III, so it might sound a bit dramatic. Of course, season III will be coming soon, I just need to figure out more plot points that I should add to it. Feel free to PM me ideas and stuff. Thank you for continued support!


End file.
